Effect of hydrocolloids, storage temperature, and duration on the consistency of tomato ketchup

The effect of different hydrocolloids viz. guar gum, sodium alginate, pectin. CMC (carboxy methyl cellulose), xanthan gum and gum acacia on the consistency index, serum loss and flow value of tomato ketchup during storage at 5 and 50degreesC was studied. All hydrocolloids increased consistency of tomato ketchup, however, guar gum and xanthan gum caused maximum increase followed by CMC, sodium alginate, gum acacia and pectin. The consistency of tomato ketchup decreased with the increase in storage duration and the decrease was more pronounced at 50degreesC as compared at 5degreesC. Both serum loss and flow value decreased with the addition of all the hydrocolloids and increased with the increase in storage duration and temperature. Xanthan gum and guar gum caused maximum decrease in serum loss and flow value whereas pectin caused the least. Regression analysis was also performed to compute models which can be used to predict the effect of each hydrocolloid on consistency index, serum loss and flow value of tomato ketchup during storage at different temperature. Guar gum followed by CMC and sodium alginate were observed to be the best thickener for tomato ketchup among hydrocolloids studied.