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Research article2020Peer reviewed

Morphological and structural heterogeneity of solid gliadin food foams modified with transglutaminase and food grade dispersants

Ceresino, Elaine; Johansson, Eva; Sato, Hélia Harumi; Plivelic, Tomas S.; Hall, Stephen; Kuktaite, Ramune

Abstract

We show in this study the impact of transglutaminase (SB6), glycerol (Gly) and linoleic acid (LA) on the development of gliadin (Glia) solid edible foams. Two concentrations of SB6 were tested, 0.58 U/g and 1.17 U/g, and sufficiently high concentration of SB6 was found essential to crosslink the gliadins. Greater cross-linking in foam prepared with gliadin and 1.17 U/g of SB6 (2-TG-Glia) was followed by an increase of the size of the bubbles as well as improved bubble spatial homogeneity when compared to the non-treated gliadin foam (0-Glia). The inclusion of Gly had little effect on the periodic morphology of 2-TG-Glia, and the formed bubbles decreased in size. The 3D images of 2-TG-Glia revealed that the boundaries of the foams were less definied as observed by x-ray tomography. Nanomorphology studied by SAXS indicated that Gly impared the unfolding of gliadin in the foam. The addition of linoleic acid (LA) in the foams caused formation of the discontinous Glia network with large and sparce bubbles as revealed by x-ray tomograms. The synergistic interactions of Glia and LA led to the formation of lamellar phases in the foams as observed by SAXS. The results from this study show gliadin as a promising resource to create diverse new aerated foods and contribute to achieve the demand for plant proteins with great foaming functionality. The addition of food-grade dispersants such as, glycerol and linoleic acid, show a versatility and suitability of gliadin for new food applications such as breakfast cereals and snacks.

Keywords

Solid food foam; 3-D microstructure; Gliadin protein; Transglutaminase; Crosslinking; Glycerol; Linoleic acid; Morphology

Published in

Food Hydrocolloids
2020, Volume: 108, article number: 105995