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| Life |
This story pubished
online:
Thursday, April 22, 2004 10:00 AM
CDT |
A matter of taste: Eastern Illinois
University students put Z-Trim to the test
By Arlene Mannlein - H&R Staff Writer
|
 |
Herald
& Review photos/Carlos T. Miranda
Jennifer Short
prepares cheesecake samples for her food science class at
Eastern Illinois University. Short and classmates used a fat
substitute in the recipe.
| | CHARLESTON - Their taste buds couldn't tell much
difference. For the producers of Z-Trim, that was a good thing.
Ten
Eastern Illinois University dietetics students this week conducted an
"official" scientific and public taste testing of the new fat replacement
product, created by Fibergel Technologies Inc. of Mundelein. It is made
from corn bran and designed to be used not as a fat substitute but as a
fat replacement.
And the consensus of the three dozen tasters was
that adding the product didn't alter the original recipe's taste, no
matter what the food was.
The students created recipes from cookies
to meat loaf to salad dressing to homemade ice cream. Each student, said
Susan Rippy, instructor, created her own scorecard for the tasters. Most
recipes were prepared with a control (original recipe) and two variations,
one with Z-Trim replacing 25 percent of the fat, the other with 50 percent
of the fat replaced.
"(Z-Trim) doesn't make a big difference in the
taste or the texture," said Jennifer Short of Newton who created
cheesecakes for the panel. And, she added, if a topping, such as cherry or
strawberry would be included, she thought few people would ever notice a
difference.
Allison Dietze of Charleston created homemade chocolate
ice cream, made the churning way. She replaced 50 percent of the half and
half her recipe required with the same amount of Z-Trim
gel.
"I
think it's better. (The ice cream) has a better, smoother texture and
doesn't melt as fast."
Her taste panel agreed.
For Sheila
Simkaitis of Charleston, the choice was to make a honey mustard salad
dressing. She made two variations with Z-Trim. While the taste didn't seem
to be altered that much, according to the panel, Simkaitis felt the
biggest difference was the version with 50 percent fat replacement was
slightly paler in color.
The fat replacement comes as a fine powder
and can be used as either powder or gel. The gel is created from combining
the powder and water.
This project was a challenge for the
students, Rippy said, but "made it so much more interesting" to be
involved in the testing process.
At some point, James Painter,
chair of family and consumer sciences at Eastern Illinois University,
would like to test Z-Trim in a true blind study. He'd like to have two
groups of persons, each choosing 25 of their normal and customary foods.
One group would eat as usual, the other with Z-Trim added.
If the
group eating the Z-Trim-added foods lost weight, without restricting
dietary intake, "now that would be rather startling news," he
added.
Arlene Mannlein can be reached at [email protected]
or 421-6976.
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