OHMIC HEATING PASTEURIZATION AND THE BIOACCESSIBILITY OF CALCIUM AND PHOSPHORUS OF ORANGE WHEY DRINK BEVERAGES, ASSESSED BY IN VITRO DIGESTION SIMULATION

The use of whey protein, associated or not to other functional component, as a food ingredient can be used to formulation of whey drinks. For the thermal treatment of whey beverages, the ohmic heating turns to be an innovative technique. In this context, the aim of the study was to evaluate total and bioaccessible content of Ca and P in ohmic heating pasteurized orange whey drink. The ohmic heating treatment was applied at 40 V, to 72 °C for 30 min and three current frequencies were tested - 100 (T1), 200 (T2) and 300 Hz (T3) – and a conventional HTST pasteurized sample (CP) was used as control. Total and bioaccessible Ca was determined by FAAS. The content of P was quantified by colorimetric method. In vitro digestion was assessed by the standardized INFOGEST 2.0 protocol. Samples T2, T3 and CP showed similar total Ca (43.63–49.30 mg 100 g-1) meanwhile T1 showed the highest Ca content (64.7 mg 100 g-1). Total P content did not differ among samples (56.75–68.22 mg 100g-1). All whey drinks had bioaccessible Ca close to 100%, and bioaccessible P showed a slightly lower percentage, although T1 obtained the lowest percentage (73%). Results evidenced that the bioaccessible Ca was not modified by the electric current. This may not apply to the behavior of P, which showed no difference in all heat treatments, but proved to be more bioaccessible at higher current frequencies. The total content and bioaccessibility behavior of the studied whey beverages’ minerals reinforced the minimization the impact of ohmic heating on the nutritional characteristics. In addition, the presence of the prebiotic component in the drinks, from orange, did not interfere with the solubilization of Ca, in any of the heat treatment conditions applied.