Kinetics of cowpea starch gelatinization and modeling of starch gelatinization during steaming of intact cowpea seed

Abstract

Steaming of cowpea seeds prevents weevil infestation during storage. Physicochemical changes such as starch gelatinization from steaming may lead to seed resistance to weevil penetration and digestion. A kinetics of starch gelatinization was constructed and incorporated in a heat and mass transfer model to quantitatively investigate starch gelatinization in intact seeds during steaming. The outer layers of steamed seeds (0.5 mm thick) were removed by a specially designed grinding device to measure degree of starch gelatinization (DG). The predicted DG in the outermost layer of seeds was found to be in good agreement with experimental data. The average relative error for DG was 14.6%.