Rheological behavior of gelatinized pastes stored at low temperatures

NAVARRO A.S.; MARTINO M.N.; ZARITZKY N.E.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; International Congress Cold'92; 1992

International Institute of Refrigeration

Worldwide, the frozen food industry has experimented an outstanding growth in the last two decades. Sauces and gravies markedly increase flavor, texture and stability of frozen cooked meat and vegetable dishes. The objectives of this work were to analyze the rheological behavior of starch and fat based pastes, as a function of: a) composition using different thickening agents and a stabilizer; b) refrigerated storage at 0°C and 5°C; c) freezing rate, rapid (-20°C) and slow (-5°C). As freezing rate decreases larger ice crystals are obtained which lead to a higher structure deterioration of the gel. Frozen samples with xanthan gum yielded gels which maintain the characteristics of the fresh samples due to the hydrophilic character of the gum.