Elaboração de biscoito tipo “cookie” a partir da farinha do pedúnculo do caju (anacardium occidentale L.): Caracterização física, físico-química e sensorial.

Abstract

The Anacardium Occidentale L. is a natural fruit species of Tropical America, distributed in several regions of the country concentrating mainly of the Northeast. Cashew is composed of two parts, that is, the true or brown fruit and the pseudofruit or false fruit (the peduncle). The cashew has vitamins and minerals in its composition, constituting itself as an important nutritional source. In this sense, in order to take advantage of the nutritional benefits of cashew, the accomplishment of the drying of the peduncle becomes an alternative to preserve its sensorial characteristics, which can increase its durability, besides adding nutritional value to the products that can be developed using this structure in its elaboration, like bakery products. The objective of this work was to develop and characterize the physical, chemical, and microbiological aspects of cashew tree flour and to evaluate its acceptance in the form of cookie type cookies. Initially the flour was developed by drying in a circulation oven at 55º C for 24 hours. Moisture, ashes, lipids, water activity, total soluble solids, pH, total dry extract and microbiological analyzes (coliforms at 45ºC, Salmonella spp and Staphylococcus coagulase positive) were carried out on the processed meal. Then, three formulations of cookie type cookies, F1 (with 0% of cashew peduncle flour), F2 (with 50% of the cashew peduncle flour) and F3 (with 100% of the cashew peduncle flour) and sensorial analysis using a structured hedonic scale of nine points. For the appearance and color attributes the control cookie F1 obtained higher averages when compared to the biscuit F2 and F3. However, the F2 biscuits when compared to F3, obtained greater sensory acceptance for the attributes mentioned above. For aroma and flavor attributes, it can be verified that the addition of cashew tree flour at different concentrations (F2 and F3) did not cause significant differences. Regarding the texture and overall evaluation, the average F2 and F3 formulations did not defer and the lowest percentage of flour addition of the cashew peduncle (F2) did not differ significantly from the control biscuit. For purchase intention, the assigned scores were in the range of 3.98 - 4.08, not differing between the formulations (F1, F2 and F3), classifying "maybe buy or not" and "possibly buy" respectively. In view of this, we can highlight that the drying of the cashew peduncle flour is a viable alternative to preserve the nutritional quality and shelf life of the cashew peduncle and to add nutritional value to the bakery products.