Probing the Functionality of Physically Modified Corn Flour as Clean Label Thickening Agent with a Multiscale Characterization.

A multilevel and multianalytical approach, combining both traditional and unconventional analytical tools, was used to characterize two physically modified (heated and heated-extruded) corn flours to be used as a "clean label" food ingredient. Physical treatments decreased the resistant starch content and increased the water holding capacity and water binding capacity, more extensively in the product subjected to heating-extrusion, as compared to an untreated control. Heated-extruded flour had the highest ability to form homogeneous systems in cold water while all modified flours produced homogeneous systems when mixed with hot water.

Structured emulsions as butter substitutes: effects on physicochemical and sensory attributes of shortbread cookies.

Background: Reformulation of foods products to reduce total and saturated fats while maintaining acceptable structure, texture and mouthfeel poses an important challenge to the food industry. In this work, the use of structured emulsions (fibre-induced oil-in-water biphasic systems with reduced total and saturated fats) is proposed to replace butter in shortbread cookies.

Results: Use of structured emulsions resulted in softer dough that was still workable using a traditional process.

Effect of added ingredients on water status and physico-chemical properties of tomato sauce.

Different ingredients (guar, xanthan, carboxy methyl cellulose, locust bean gums, potato fiber, milk, potato and soy proteins) were added to tomato sauce to investigate their effect on its physico-chemical properties. The products were characterized in terms of colour, rheological properties (Bostwick consistency, flow behavior and consistency coefficient), water status (water activity, moisture content) and molecular mobility by H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). Water activity was significantly decreased only by the addition of potato fiber.

Effect of water and gluten on physico-chemical properties and stability of ready to eat shelf-stable pasta.

A multi-analytical and multi-dimensional approach was used to investigate the effect of moisture and gluten on physico-chemical properties of shelf-stable ready to eat (RTE) pasta. Moisture and frozen water contents were not affected by formulation nor storage time. Hardness and retrograded amylopectin significantly increased during storage in all samples, more markedly in pasta with the lowest moisture content.

The use of potato fibre to improve bread physico-chemical properties during storage.

Bread staling reduction is a very important issue for the food industry. A fibre with high water holding capacity, extracted from potato peel, was studied for its ability to reduce bread staling even if employed at low level (0.4 g fibre/100 g flour).