Consumer habits have undergone great changes, motivated by the new social lifestyle. These changes have promoted the increase in the production of frozen foods; and as a result, many food applications of some hydrocolloids are limited due to functional loss during freezing. In this study, the effect of freezing treatments (−18 °C for 24 h and −30 °C for 15 h) on rheological, emulsifying, foaming, and textural characteristics of cress seed gum as a new source of hydrocolloid in comparison with xanthan gum as a commercial gum were investigated. The results demonstrated that cress seed gum had significantly lower viscosity than xanthan gum solution, and the freezing treatments did not have significant impact on rheological properties of both products. Conversion of water to ice leads to an increment in molecular association and improved textural characteristics. The high tendency of cress seed gum chains to associate is attributed to its high mannose to galactose ratio. High stability of cress seed gum and similarity with xanthan gum make it attractive for use in frozen foods as a novel gum to provide specific functionality, minimize the negative effect of freezing, and reduce production costs.

Keywords