Level: Beginner
【Presenter】
Nichika Sakai, R & D Department, Unitech Foods Co., Ltd.
Yuka Higuchi, Research and Development Department, Unitech Foods Co., Ltd.
Momoko Asano, Manager, Research and Development Department, Unitech Foods Co., Ltd.
[Announcement summary]
Pectin is a thickening polysaccharide contained in fruits such as apples and citrus fruits, and is used as a food additive in Japan for gelation of jams and the like.
The purpose of this study was to quickly estimate Degree of esterification: DE, which is an important indicator of pectin gelation.
Pectin is an acidic polysaccharide and has a main chain polymerized with galacturonic acid having a carboxy group. Some carboxy groups are methyl esterified and their proportion is called DE. It is roughly divided into High methoxyl: HM pectin and Low methoxyl: LM pectin according to DE, and the gelation mechanism is different.
Since LM pectin gels by cross-linking carboxy groups with metal ions such as calcium to form a network, the gelling properties differ greatly depending on the DE. Therefore, DE is a very important indicator of gelation. However, the titration method and the colorimetric method, which are general DE measurement methods, have problems such as long working time and blurring due to the skill of the operator.
Therefore, in this study, the absorption spectrum data of pectin obtained by measurement with a Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FT-IR) was analyzed by PLS regression, which is one of the multivariate analysis methods, and a DE estimation model was constructed. .. This made it possible to quickly and easily estimate DE by measuring pectin with an unknown molecular structure by FT-IR.
[Presenter Profile]
Completed the master's course at Tokyo Kaiyo Graduate School in 2013. Joined Unitech Foods Co., Ltd. in the same year. After working in the Technology Development Department, he has belonged to the Research and Development Department from 2020 to the present.
Unitech Foods Co., Ltd. has a main business of collecting hydrocolloids such as pectin, natural food materials, and functional materials from overseas material manufacturers, and providing and selling them to domestic food manufacturers together with utilization know-how. He is involved in product development, quality improvement, and research work that utilizes the above. Currently, I am mainly studying the molecular structure of pectin and its changes in physical properties, and I am using statistical analysis by JMP for that analysis.
I thought it was amazing to build a simple and stable estimation model by utilizing PLS regression.
