Modeling flavor development in cereal based foams under thermal treatment

Abstract

Foam materials play an important role in several industrial fields, especially in life science engineering, the texture and flavor release of food products is of major importance for taste, food quality and product acceptance by the consumers. Under the influence of heat, material characteristics of cereal based foam changes according to a chain of physical and biochemical processes including structural transformation, phase changes and the development of color and flavor. In the proposed material, surface color and flavor develop temperature dependent according to the Maillard reaction. The present research focuses on the flavor development in cereal based foams under thermal treatment and modeling the corresponding chemical reaction kinetics by the use of 3-D-Lattice-Boltzmann-Methods (LBM). The pathway for the development of the primary compound, 2-Acetyl-1-pyrroline, accounting for the typical aroma of the proposed products, is modeled according to a simplified reaction kinetic approach [1]. In addition, the heat flux through the material is modeled by introducing two differing thermal diffusivities for solid phases and gaseous phases, respectively. The results show the temperature dependent flavor formation occurring mainly in the boundary layer of the model foam material due to the higher temperature (T ∼ 150°C) compared to the inner product (T ∼ 100°C).