Development of Rheo-Additives and their Applications in Food Technology

A review of literature has been conducted on hydrocolloids chemical structure, functions, and their industrial extraction, as well as rheology science and rheological measurements. The functional properties of important hydrocolloids comprising native corn, potato and wheat starch, xanthan, locus bean gum, guar, konjac mannan, cellulose derivatives including carboxymethyl cellulose, methyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, gum tragacanth and inulin as single, binary and ternary systems have been examined in terms of steady state and oscillatory rheological properties, and particle size distribution parameters. Indeed, the various functionalities and physicochemical properties of these hydrocolloids were quantified at different concentrations and temperatures. The structure formation potentials of the hydrocolloids were evaluated as well. The synergistic and antagonistic effects between some of the mentioned hydrocolloids were investigated; an attempt has been made to reveal the underlying mechanism for the occurrence of synergistic effect using modern rheology, gel permeation chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry. After rheological characterization of the hydrocolloids as a single system and blend model system, the techno-functionality and applicability of the hydrocolloids were studied in real food systems such as semi solid dairy dessert with the aim of developing a new cost-effective formulation , cheese analogues with the goal of reducing the fat content, and swallowing agents with the aim of developing a new compound tailored for dysphagic patients and filling the gap between the quality of the current commercial products and the need and expectation of the patients. In order to gain a more profound insight into what occur during the structure formation of the products, the time derivatives of the viscoelastic parameters were calculated which provided us with interesting results and some new parameters.