Summary of the ‘Effect of gum on staling’

The effects of xanthan and guar gums on staling of gluten-free rice cakes baked in different ovens

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2010, 45, 87–93 87

 

Summary of the ‘Effect of gum on staling’

About 3~5% of the population of Europe and USA suffer from celiac diseases which is an autoimmune response to gluten that damages the small intestine.

As people from Europe and the USA traditionally have diets based on wheat products, extensive research on gluten-free breads, development of gluten substitutes and alternative flour from other cereal flours was conducted.

However, there weren’t much research conducted on other wheat products such as cookies, cakes and noodles in terms of gluten-free product development.

 

 

This research examined the effect of staling of gluten-free rice cake formations by experimenting with different types of gums, adjustments with concentration of gums and different types of ovens with comparison of the MW-IR combination oven and the conventional oven.

Gums were utilized for this research as they are used in industrial level production of cakes as they can control the viscosity of rice cake batters and control the structure and shelf-life of the products by controlling the moisture.

 

 

The research results show that in general, products with higher gum concentration are more resistant to staling and had longer shelf-lives.

Among the gums that were experimented, xanthan-gum was the most effective in terms of staling retardation.

Products backed from the MW-IR combination ovens tended be more resistant to retrogradation however they had higher hardness values when compared with products from conventional ovens which shows that MW-IR ovens could be used for baking gluten-free rice cakes if preferred characteristics are compatible with this cooking method and when shorter time is preferred.

 

 

1.       Why does the addition of gums lead to more resistance to staling(retrogradation)?

The structure of gums allows them to polymerize and form a structure which could provide elasticity that also interfere with the reassociation of amylose molecules.

 

2.       How could microwave-infrared combination heating contribute to resistance to retrogradation but increased hardness values of the product?

 Infrared microwaves are able increase the uniformity and overall rate of heating of the product which allows it to increase the moisture distribution within the food while it also led to more moisture loss.