Mate tea leaves is a raw material of great importance to Southern Brazil, considering its annual production of approximately 650,000 tons of leaves. Currently the excess of mate tea leaves supply in the market has encouraged researchers and entrepreneurs to search for alternatives involving the application of this raw material in the development of new products, as well as the improvement the industrial process, seeking to obtain desirable organoleptic properties. Thus, the present work performed the physical-chemical characterization of mate tea leaves, correlating its qualities to the industrial processing steps ("sapeco", drying and time of "cancheamento"). The effect of these steps on the content of ash, fiber, fat, protein, glucose, sucrose and caffeine in the raw material was investigated. The results show that the industrial processing steps have direct influence on the content of such compounds. This proves the relevance of analyzing these results when the use of the raw material for the development of new food products is intended.
industrial processing; physical-chemical characterization; mate tea leaves
