ARS | Publication request: Viscoelastic properties of oat ß-glucan-rich aqueous dispersions

Submitted to: Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: October 10, 2012
Publication Date: November 8, 2012
Citation: Xu, J., Inglett, G.E., Chen, D., Liu, S.X. 2013. Viscoelastic properties of oat ß-glucan-rich aqueous dispersions. Food Chemistry. 138:186-191.

Interpretive Summary: Nutrition research has indicated that soluble fibers such as ß-glucan from cereal grains contribute great benefits to healthy foods. A new nutrition-improved food product, C-trim (C is for calorie), was developed by the US Department of Agriculture at NCAUR. C-trim contains higher content of soluble fiber ß-glucan; ranging from C-trim20 with 20% of ß-glucan to C-trim95 with 95% of ß-glucan. As a biopolymer, C-trim can not only contribute its nutrition benefits to the food products, but also can be used to control the texture of food. This work studies how various C-trim products behave when mixed; these studies would have value in both food processing and food taste. In addition, this work may allow the discovery of additional applications. This research will benefit nutrition food by providing new market in which to sell C-trim products.

Technical Abstract: C-trim is a healthy food product containing the dietary of soluble fiber ß-glucan. The suspension of C-trim in water is a hydrocolloid biopolymer. The linear and non-linear rheological properties for suspensions of C-trim biopolymers were investigated. The linear viscoelastic behaviors for C-trim suspensions were dependent on the ß-glucan that the C-trim contained. The C-trim20 and C-trim30, which had about 20% and 30% ß-glucan respectively, exhibited more fluid-like behaviors. The C-trim50 and C-trim95, which contained about 50% and 95% ß-glucan respectively, showed viscoelastic solid properties. The power law model fitting as well as spectra for the linear dynamic frequency sweep and stress relaxation of C-trim suspensions suggested the C-trim suspensions should be physical entanglement networks instead of chemical cross-linking ones. The no-linear steady shearing studies for C-trim suspensions indicated that all of the four C-trim suspensions exhibited shear thinning behaviors, which could be well described by the power law model.