Viscoelastic Properties of Extruded Cereal Melts

Hydrophilic biopolymer systems reach a state of maximum plasticization at a concentration of water designated as Wg′. The thermomechanical behaviour of various extruded cereals were investigated at concentrations above and below Wg′ to determine the significance of Wg′ on the viscoelastic properties in the rubbery region above Tg. Cereal melts were produced via extrusion cooking using a twin-screw extruder at in-barrel moisture contents ranging from 25 to 42% (wb). Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) was used to determine the viscoelastic properties for melts obtained from degermed corn meal, oat flour, pregelatinized corn starch and pregelatinized waxy maize. All of the extruded melts displayed reductions in the storage modulus of about two orders of magnitude from the glassy to rubbery regimes. At temperatures greater than 320K, another transition is apparent for extruded oat flour. These losses may be attributed to a reduction in physical crosslinks and/or entanglements. With respect to the other melts investigated, differences in the oat flour melts at temperatures above Tgmay be due to the increased presence of protein and lipid. Given the apparent partly crystalline nature of these melts at moisture contents