Abstract:
This research was designed to study the factors affecting the oil barrier property of cellulose ethers in deep-fat fried product. The effects of type, molecular weight, and concentration of cellulose ethers on the pasting characteristics of wheat flour slurries, rheological properties during gelatinization of wheat flour batters, oil absorption as well as microstructure of fried batter-coated product were studied. Three types of cellulose ethers (A4M, E4M, and K4M) with the same molecular weight and each in four concentrations [0, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 percent (w/w) of flour] were tested. Next, methylcellulose of three different average molecular weight numbers (Mn) [14000 (A15), 41000 (A4C), and 86000 (A4M)] were included to study the effects of variations of molecular weight and concentration. Finally, effect of concentration of each methylcellulose was studied. Concentrations of the cellulose ethers A15 [0, 1, 2, and 3 percent (w/w)], A4C [0, 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 percent (w/w)], and A4M [0, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 percent (w/w)] were varied accordingly. The pasting properties of wheat flour slurries, 12 percent (w/v), were individually tested using Brabender Visco-Amylograph, with a sample bowl attachment. Only heating cycle was tested. Rheological properties [temperature at G crossover point (TG) and maximum storage modulus (G?max)] of two batter systems [controlled viscosity batters (CVB) at 1200 cp and controlled initial moisture content batters (CIMB) at 134 g/100 g flour] during gelatinization were investigated using a dynamic rheometer. Finally, the effects of cellulose ethers on oilabsorption and microstructure were studied by coating cylindrical potatoes (10 mm dia. and 50 mm long) with treatment batters and frying them at 160?C for 3 min. The results showed that the addition of A-type cellulose ether (methylcellulose) had the most significant effect on the pasting and rheological properties. Therefore, only methylcellulose was chosen to study the effect of molecular weight variation. It was found that molecular weight of methylcellulose did not affect the pasting temperature and hot paste stability. Conversely, higher Mn of up to 41000 resulted in higher paste viscosity values. Additionally, increase in the concentrations of methylcellulose resulted in lower pasting temperature and higher paste viscosity values. In the dynamic rheological properties study, TG and G?max values of batters during gelatinization were affected by the types of cellulose ether incorporated. Among the three types tested, batters containing A4M showed the highest G?max whereas batters containing K4M had the highest TG and lowest G?max. In CVB, the addition of a higher Mn cellulose ether called for higher water content to achieve the desired viscosity resulting in higher TG and lower G?max values of batters. Additionally, increase in the cellulose ether concentrations, with simultaneous increase in water content, showed higher TG (except batters containing A15) but lower G?max of batters. In CIMB, only batters mixed with 0.6 percent of the highest Mn cellulose ether lowered the TG and G? max. The cellulose ethers molecular weight did not affect G?max values. The influence of cellulose ethers on oil absorption property showed that there was no significant difference in the moisture and oil content of the final fried products due to the differences in the types of cellulose ethers. For CVB, higher Mn of methylcellulose of up to 41000 with simultaneous increase in the initial moisture content, resulted in higher moisture content in fried coatings and oil content in food substrates and then leveled off. The higher the concentration of methylcellulose, the higher the oil content in food substrates and lower the oil uptake ratio in the coatings. For CIMB, the presence of cellulose ethers raised the viscosity of batters which impacted coating thickness and oil absorption of fried products. Type of cellulose ethers did not affect the fried product qualities, however, increase in molecular weights and concentrations resulted in lower oil absorption and oil uptake ratio. SEM micrographs of fried batters showed that the structures of batters containing different types of cellulose ethers were similar. For CVB, the structure of batter containing methylcellulose of higher molecular weight and concentration with simultaneous higher moisture content allowed greater oil penetration into the foodiv substrate. In contrast, the structure of CIMB with a higher molecular weight and concentration of methylcellulose helped in preventing oil penetration in the food substrate.