Starch properties during processing are major determinants of starch employment for food development. The gelatinization, pasting, and retrogradation of starch can be modified by the addition of galactomannans, which can improve rheological, textural, and nutritional properties. Rheology is an important key to obtain information about thermal transitions of starch and controlling characteristics required in food applications and to enhance understanding of the effect of starch-galactomannans systems and starch properties. This chapter provides information on starch transitions under heating and after cooling, including a definition of the process, molecular mechanisms, and rheological methods and its modification using starch-galactomannans mixtures and explains interactions throughout several investigations. The chapter also discusses how the rheological properties can affect the rate of the enzyme digestibility of starch on in vitro measurements and presents the starch-galactomannan systems as an alternative that can be used in structured foods as functional ingredients.
Part of the book: Solubility of Polysaccharides