Zodo gum exudates from Rosaceae as a fat replacer in reduced-fat salad dressing

As a commonly used salad dressing, mayonnaise is a semi-solid, oil-in-water emulsion, which is prepared through the mixture of egg yolk, vinegar, oil, and mustard. Selecting new sources of hydrocolloids as stabilisers in the production of salad dressings, however, demands a sufficient understanding of potential hydrocolloids’ functional properties such as rheological and physicochemical features. To shed light on this problem, the present work investigated the native Zodo gum (ZG) in concentrations of 3% and 4% which replaced 25% and 50% of oil in the formulation of reduced-fat salad dressings. All samples, including ZG1, ZG2, ZG3, ZG4, control, and commercial sample, showed pseudoplastic fluid behaviour (flow index < 1), while the viscosity of ZG1 was not found to be significantly different from commercial salad dressings which is widely available in the market (p > 0.05). Reduced-fat salad dressing samples with added ZG showed significantly higher stability than the control sample, while no significant difference was observed between ZG1, ZG2, and the commercial sample (p > 0.05). The minimum amount of calories was shown in ZG3 which had the lowest fat content (37.5%). The highest overall acceptance scores (4.21) were given to ZG1 and commercial sample in which the apparent viscosity was between 100 - 110 pa·s. Findings of the present work suggest that ZG is one of the most appropriate options as a fat replacer in reduced-fat salad dressings because of its affordable price, availability, and security of supply.