ARS | Publication request: INTERACTIION OF SOY OIL AND WHEAT GLUTEN IN JET-COOKED FLOUR-SOY OIL COMPOSITES

Submitted to: American Association of Cereal Chemists Meetings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: October 17, 2002
Publication Date: December 15, 2002
Citation: Felker, F.C., Fanta, G.F. 2002. INTERACTIION OF SOY OIL AND WHEAT GLUTEN IN JET-COOKED FLOUR-SOY OIL COMPOSITES. American Association of Cereal Chemists Meetings. xx.

Technical Abstract: Starch-oil composites prepared by excess steam jet cooking contain starch-coated oil droplets (1-10 microns in diameter) uniformly suspended in cooked starch. When flour was used as a starch source for food applications, a more complex structure was observed in bulk and by microscopy. This study was made to determine the effect of the gluten component of flour on oil droplet behavior in flour-oil composites as observed by light microscopy. Wheat gluten was substantially disrupted by excess steam jet cooking. When soy oil was co-cooked with flour or wheat gluten, most oil droplets were bound to coagulated networks of disrupted gluten, with relatively few free oil droplets. Mixtures of wheat starch (85%) and wheat gluten (15%) jet-cooked with and without soy oil yielded composites similar to those made with wheat flour. Jet-cooked gluten did not absorb or remove most starch-coated oil droplets from pre-formed wheat starch-oil composites, suggesting that the gluten-oil interaction occurs during or immediately after jet cooking. Association of oil droplets with cooked gluten causes the buoyant gluten-oil networks to rise to the top of flour-oil composites, while the starch deposited on the oil droplets prevents oil coalescence, allowing homogeneous dispersions to be easily reformed with gentle mixing. These observations will assist development of flour-based food applications of this technology.