Cupcake com casca de abacaxi: avaliação sensorial e impacto na aceitabilidade.

Abstract

Poor nutrition and food waste are significant issues in university life, often exacerbated by the fast-paced routine, academic stress and lack of healthy options. The analysis focuses on an innovative strategy to reduce waste and improve the nutritional quality of food consumed, in addition to promoting a healthy and sustainable diet among university students. In view of this, the objective was to develop pineapple cupcakes with a nutritional character, made from the full use of the food, with the use of the peel, and to evaluate the microbiological parameters and acceptability by university students at the Federal University of Campina Grande, in the municipality of Cuité, PB, with the aim of encouraging a healthy and varied diet. This is an experimental research, which was conducted at the Education and Health laboratory of the Federal University of Campina Grande, Cuité campus. After approval by the Ethics Committee, two cupcake formulations were prepared using pineapple peel: CC (control cupcake) and C10 (cupcake with 10% added peel). A structured hedonic evaluation consisting of a nine-point scale was used to assess acceptability. Thus, at the end of the analyses, the results revealed that cupcakes with pineapple peel received positive evaluations in the attributes of appearance, aroma and texture, when compared to the control group. A decrease in the purchase intention of cupcakes with pineapple peel was observed in comparison to the product without the peel, with an average of 1.88. The acceptability index was higher than 70% for all formulations evaluated; however, cupcakes with pineapple peel were well accepted in the attributes of color, aroma, appearance, flavor and texture, with acceptability indexes higher than 80%, demonstrating good sensory acceptance by the tasters. Therefore, the addition of pineapple peel to cupcakes is a promising strategy to promote the full use of food and sustainability, although it is necessary to address the factors that influence consumers' purchase intention.