Impact of solvent and supercritical fluid extracts of green tea on physicochemical and sensorial aspects of chicken soup

Designer foods carrying nutraceuticals or polyphenols are in fame to address varied free radical mediated disorders. In this context, green tea extract incorporation in designer products is considered as an effective approach to improve antioxidant capacity owing to epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). In the current project, EGCG was extracted using solvent (acetone) and supercritical fluid (CO₂) extraction methods. Then, EGCG was quantified in the resultant extracts via high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system that showed an upper hand of EGCG in supercritical fluid extract (77.23 mg/g) as compared to acetonic extract (65.88 mg/g) at constant extraction temperature and time. In product development phase, different chicken soup prototypes were prepared such as S₀ (Control soup without green tea extract), S₁ (soup carrying 3% acetonic green tea extract) and S₂ (soup carrying 2.5% supercritical CO₂ green tea extract). The resultant products were then analyzed for physiochemical and sensory aspects during storage intervals; 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hr. Storage impacted significantly on some color values like a*, b* and chroma. The statistical analysis demonstrated obvious impact of treatments and storage on total soluble solids (TSS). Further, storage affected significantly on pH and acidity of the resultant samples. Green tea extract carrying products significantly improved TPC; S₁ (46.66 ± 2.39 mg GAE/100mL) and S₂ (49.19 ± 2.36 mg GAE/100mL) in contrast to control treatment (18.19 ± 0.89 mg GAE/100 mL). During storage, significant decline in TPC was noted from 39.43 ± 1.98 to 36.02 ± 1.82 mg GAE/100 mL. Moreover, considerable response of treatments was viewed on taste scores whilst, storage impacted remarkably on flavor, taste, texture and overall-acceptability, excluding organoleptic response regarding color. Conclusively, supercritical fluid green tea extract based designer chicken soup (S₂) has proven its relatively better antioxidants retention, storage stability and sensory profile in comparison to conventional solvent green tea extract based soup (S₁).