Physical, rheological and textural characterization of herbal seasoning enriched with oyster mushroom (pleurotus sajor-caju) powder

The influence of oyster mushroom (pleurotus sajor-caju, PSC) powder on the physical properties of herbal seasoning (HS) was investigated. The pH, total solid, viscosity, rheology and texture of semi solid HS containing different PSC powder level (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 8%, 100% w/w) of coconut milk powder were measured. The pH of the products were in the range of 4.05 - 4.15. Rheological behavior was characterized by oscillatory rheometry. Stress sweep, frequency sweep and steady stress experiments were conducted to study the behavior of the products. The products showed non Newtonian characteristic or shear thinning. All samples were G'> G" showed the gel like network. In addition, the back extrusion rig texture analysis showed the correlation among the samples were also studied. Total substitution of PSC powder (100% w/w) in the formulation resulted more viscous product and the combination of the coconut milk powder and PSC powder showed the best spreadability and flow to the product characteristics. No added PSC powder (0% w/w) showed the least viscous products and the less moduli among the samples studied. The present study suggested the incorporation of more than 40% PSC powder to replace coconut milk powder give better flowability and not affect the viscosity of the products.