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Title: EFFECT OF PROCESSING CONDITIONS ON THE VISCOELASTIC BEHAVIOR OF NU-TRIMX: AN OAT-BASED BETA-GLUCAN-RICH HYDROCOLLOIDAL EXTRACTIVE

Author
item Carriere, Craig
item Inglett, George

Submitted to: Journal of Texture Studies
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/1/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The soluble fiber of oats is acknowledged to benefit health by lowering blood cholesterol and reducing the risk of coronary heart disease. Despite the importance of oat products in food applications, little is known about the flow properties of these materials. In order to process oat-based materials in a cost-effective manner, an understanding of the flow behavior needs to be developed. This work reports on some of the first research aimed at understanding the flow behavior of a new, oat fiber ingredient designated as Nu-TrimX. The flow properties of Nu-TrimX produced from oat bran, oat flour, and barley flour all exhibited similar flow properties, indicating that processing schemes for introducing Nu-TrimX into new food products, will work for each of the present materials. The flow behavior of the various Nu-TrimX materials was found to be similar to those observed for other processed biopolymers.

Technical Abstract: Nu-TrimX is a new beta-glucan-rich hydrocolloid product that can be used for increasing textural qualities and health benefits of functional foods. It is prepared in high yields by a natural extraction process that removes coarse fiber components from milled oat, or barley materials such as oat bran, oat flour, defatted oat fines, or barley flour. This paper examines the effects of processing conditions and starting materials on the viscoelastic behavior of Nu-TrimX suspensions (5% by weight in deionized water). In general, Nu-TrimX suspensions exhibit clockwise thixotropic loops with shear-thinning behavior over the experimental shear rate range (0-250 s**-1) at 25 deg C. The rheological response of the various Nu-TrimX suspensions were modeled using a power law constitutive equation. The suspensions behave as pseudoplastic materials with power law exponents ranging from 0.42 to 0.71.