In situ analysis of cooking properties of rice by thermal mechanical compression test method

Developing a novel method to measure texture changes of semi-solid food during a continuous compressive motion with high deformation using repeatable dual extrusion cell (RDEC)

Mechanical changes during mastication are difficult to evaluate without using a novel method because the size of the sample is continuously and randomly reduced. The repeatable dual extrusion cell (RDEC) has been developed to measure the breakdown characteristics of a semi-solid food (i.e., minced pork gel) from initial solid states to a small particle size during repeated high deformation compressive motions. The force-time curve of RDEC was recorded, followed by a calculation of work values for each cycle and fitted by Peleg's model. The decrease of k₁ (1.7-1.19) and k₂ (1.56-1.42) values in Peleg's model with an increase of moisture content (56.5-62.5 %) indicated the easily deformable characteristics of soft food. During RDEC measurement, as long as the characteristic length of the sample was larger than the diameter of RDEC probe hole (>4.5 mm), the initial sample size showed no significant influence (p < 0.05) on the measurements. RDEC demonstrated similar ratios of particulate size with human subjects up till 20 cycles of processing. The equilibrium force value from RDEC and SEM images demonstrate that the connective tissue in pork gel mainly contributed to the end-product texture properties after continuous mastication. This study provided an application of the novel RDEC device to estimate the texture and structural changes of minced pork gel under a continuous high deformation compressive motion.

Modelling the physical properties change of canned glutinous rice porridge during cooking

In this study, we modeled the water absorption, softening and shear viscosity change kinetics of canned rice porridge during cooking as well as estimated the thermodynamic properties involved in hydration. Moreover, the internal microstructure of rice kernels was observed under different hydrothermal conditions. During cooking, the water absorption and shear viscosity alteration rate increased with temperature, whereas the softening rate decreased. However, the temperature did not significantly affect the equilibrium value of the physical properties. The variation tendencies of the moisture content and hardness of the kernels could be expressed satisfactorily by the exponential and the generalized exponential models. The porridge shear viscosity variations fitted the sigmoidal and its generalized models. Thermodynamic parameters (enthalpy, entropy and Gibbs free energy) revealed that the hydration process was non-spontaneous and exothermic. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy images and the results of the X-ray diffraction analysis showed the microstructure of the kernels during cooking, and the kernels formed a homogeneous mesh structure at earlier times during the initial stage at higher temperatures. These findings would provide valuable information for the optimization of canned rice porridge production.