Chemometrics Study to Understand the Interaction of Starch–Protein Mixtures and Food Texture

Abstract

Interactions that happen in the ingredients during the industrial process of food products, mainly in starch–protein systems, interfere directly with their typical characteristics. To investigate the effects of the individual components on textural properties blends with different soy protein isolate/gluten/starch ratios were studied. Three botanical sources of starch were also investigated by using wheat, corn, and cassava starches. The flowability, penetration force, rupture force, deformability, and hardness values of the gels, determined by texture analyzer under controlled conditions, were observed and allowed comparative study. Through chemometrics, linear, quadratic, and cubic fit models were applied to obtain polynomial equations that could adequately express the observed response surfaces for each evaluated textural parameter. The statistical significance of these models was evaluated through analysis of variance and a new experimental test, making it possible to indicate the best-fit model for each textural property studied. This study indicated that there are large correlation differences between the textural properties. The effect of soy protein isolate was greater than that of gluten and starch and a similarity of the behavior was observed from corn and wheat starches.