Effect of gelatin content and oral processing ability on vitamin C release in gummy jelly

In order to investigate the factors affecting the release of vitamin C (VC) in gummy jelly during oral processing, four levels of gelatin (3%, 6%, 9% and 12%) were selected and a bionic chewing robot was employed in chewing experiments. Textural profile analysis showed the hardness of gummy jelly increased from 91.7 N to 198.8 N when the gelatin content was raised from 3 to 12%. Single factor chewing experiment showed that the release of VC was positively correlated with chewing frequency (F_chew) and chewing strain (ST_chew), while negatively correlated with gelatin content, chewing speed (SP_chew) and volume of saliva (V_saliva). Orthogonal chewing experiment showed that the priority of the factors affected the release of VC was following: ST_chew > F_chew > SP_chew > V_saliva. Multivariate linear regression analysis proposed a model to predict the amount of VC released and the goodness-of-fit of the model was 95.7%. The amount of VC released was the highest under the combination of F_chew 12 times, ST_chew 100%, V_saliva 2 ml and SP_chew 40 times/min. The optimal amount of gelatin addition was 6%. This study provided an effective reference for the formula design and chewing mode optimization of gummy jelly.