(575d) Quantifying the Intra-Sample Variability of Gelatinization of Starch Granules for Optimization of Food Processing

Starch is a critical ingredient in determining the taste and texture of many food products. In an optimal process the starch should be fully gelatinized, because undercooked starch has a characteristic chalky flavor that is undesirable. On the other hand, overcooking can decrease the nutrition and unnecessarily increase the processing time. In this work, we present results from a “Particle Cohort Study” (ParCS) to quantify the gelatinization process of large number of individual starch granules from four common legume starches. For the first time, we quantify the intra-sample variability of individual granules, as this information is not available from the standard techniques: starch pasting and differential scanning calorimetry. The results indicate that these legume starches have a remarkably low variability in gelatinization properties, which could be advantageous for food processing. We also demonstrate that a simple empirical model is highly effective at predicting the rate and extent of gelatinization. These results are expected to enable increased optimization of food processing involving starch granules.