Analyzing effects of environmental factors on viscosity of xanthan gum solution aided by experimental design

Abstract

This chapter quantitatively analyzes the effects of xanthan gum, sucrose, salt, vinegar and their interactions on the viscosity of model solutions by utilizing full factorial designs and the analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analysis. In designing liquid foods, “good viscosity for consumers” is a key point. For food manufacturing, viscosity of liquid foods should be controlled so as to meet the required sensory properties and usability. Today, various polysaccharides are widely used to control the viscosity of foods. Generally, liquid foods are complicated multicomponent systems consisting of various materials. Thus, the viscosity of liquid food is influenced by many factors, such as ions, sugars and pH, besides the polysaccharide itself. For manufacturing liquid foods having the desired viscosity, interactions of such factors should be simultaneously considered. Full factorial designs (FFD) are used to simulate liquid foods since the FFD can suggest the most informative mixing ratios of ingredients. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression analysis (MLR) are applied to quantitatively analyzing effects of each factor and their interactions on the viscosity.