Effect of formulation and process on physicochemical properties of cereal based foods

Abstract

Food product are complex materials whose quality and stability are strongly dependent upon the way their constituent structural elements interact and assembly at multiple time-space domains. The ability to predict and control quality and ability of food requires a thorough understanding of the properties and the dynamics at multiple space-time levels characterizing food materials. The formulation of a product defines the type and the amount of structural elements available to build the food materials while the processing conditions determines the way the constituent building blocks interact and assemble. It is well recognized that water plays an important role not only in food processing operations but also in defining quality and stability of food. A thorough understanding of water status and water dynamics is one fundamental element to understand quality and stability of food items. The effect of formulation and processing in tortillas and fresh pasta have been studied in respect to products’ quality and stability with a multianalytical approach to describe multiple attributes at different timespace levels. Macroscopic product quality and stability indicators were found to be related to different measurable parameters underlying that the “relevant scale” that determines different properties must be identified. The description of the water status with different parameters such as water activity, moisture content, “frozen water” content (macromolecular level) and 1H NMR mobility (molecular level) was found to be a very valuable tool for a better understanding of properties and stability in relation to formulation and processing.