Flow Behaviors of Commercial Food Thickeners Used for the Management of Dysphagia: Effect of Temperature

Gum-based food thickeners are widely used to care for patients with dysphagia in Korea. In this study, the flow properties of commercially available gum-based food thickeners marketed in Korea were determined as a function of temperature. The flow properties of thickeners were determined based on the rheological parameters of the power law and Casson models. Changes in shear stress with the rate of shear (1-100 s-1) at different temperatures (5, 20, 35, and 50 oC) were independent of the type of thickener. All thickeners had high shear-thinning behavior (n=0.08-0.18) with yield stress at the different temperatures tested. In general, apparent viscosity (na,50) values progressively decreased with an increase in temperature. In addition, the consistency index (K) and Casson yield stress (σoc) values did not change much upon an increase in temperature from 5 to 35 oC, except for sample B. In the temperature range of 5-50 oC, the thickeners followed an Arrhenius temperature relationship with a high determination coefficient (R2=0.93-0.97): activation energies (Ea) for the flow of thickeners were in the range of 2.44 - 10.7 kJ/mol. Rheological parameters demonstrated considerable differences in flow behavior between the different gum-based food thickeners, indicating that their flow properties are related to the type of thickener and the flow properties of gum.