Investigation of physicochemical characteristics of model meat systems with emulsion gels including legume flours

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the use of vegetable oil and legume proteins in product formulation without changing the physical, chemical and technological properties of meat products. For this purpose, emulsion gels were formed using sunflower oil and pea, lentil, bean and chickpea flours, and these gels were used in place of 50% and 75% animal fat in the model meat system. In this way, it was aimed to prevent technological problems by using vegetable oil in gel form, to increase the amount of protein with legume flours and to reduce the amount of animal fat in the product. Another aim of this thesis was to show that physical properties can be explained by NMR relaxometry experiments. According to the results, the addition of emulsion gel increased the amount of moisture (%) in most of the products (p<0.05). The fat content in the samples was found to be lower than the control as expected (p <0.05). The protein amounts of the samples containing emulsion gels were found to be higher than the control (p <0.05), but no significant differences were observed between these samples (p>0.05). Although there were statistically significant differences among the pH values of the samples (p<0.05), it was considered that these differences were not prominent. No difference was observed among the color (L *, a *, b *) and the water holding capacity values (p>0.05). The texture properties (hardness, binding, flexibility, chewiness) of the products were similar to the control (p>0.05). There were significant differences in T1 and T2 relaxation times (p<0.05). Morphological images of the samples were examined by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). In general, it was thought that using emulsion gels prepared with vegetable oil and legume flours in place of animal fat did not affect the physical, chemical and technological properties of the emulsified meat products and healthier products were obtained.