Rheological studies of raw and steamed wheat flour suspensions with added ingredients

Abstract

The effect of commonly used ingredients such as salt (NaCl) and oil (groundnut oil) or their mixture on the pasting characteristics using a Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA) and the rheological constants of raw and steamed wheat flour has been studied. All the RVA parameters showed greater changes for steamed flour compared to raw flour and also for salt compared to oil. The flour steamed for 15 min exhibited a point of inflection for most of the RVA characteristics. Apparent viscosity and rheological constants showed slight changes at 30% and 33% batter concentrations while much greater changes were observed at a 36% concentration in the presence of the added ingredients. The steamed flour showed slightly lower values of apparent viscosity compared to raw flour in the presence of salt, oil, or their combination, but slightly higher values of rheological constants. However, at a 33% batter concentration, the values showed only marginal changes, which has implications for the product preparations.