Rheological Properties of Wheat Flour-based Batter Containing Tapioca Starch

Abstract

Batter properties are important in the development of fried battered products. In this study, the effects of tapioca starch (TS) and temperature on the viscosity of wheat flour-based batters were investigated. Flour blended (91.4%) from commercial all-purpose wheat flour (WF) and TS at three different mixing ratios (WF:TS = 100:0, 75:25 and 50:50), leavening powder (3.1%) and salt (5.5%) were mixed to obtain dry-mix. Batter was prepared by adding water (15°C) to the dry-mixes in the proportion of 1:1.3 (w/w) and kept for 1 h at 10°C before rheological property evaluation using a rotational viscometer at 10, 15, 20 and 25°C. The rheograms of all batters with different mixing ratios of flour exhibited shear-thinning behavior at all studied temperatures. The apparent viscosity of WF-based batter systems decreased with an increase in the substitution of TS and with temperature. The power law equation was a suitable representation of all batter formulations with different mixing ratios of WF and TS (r² = 0.989-1.000). Replacement of TS in batters decreased the consistency coefficient (K) but increased the flow behavior index (n). The activation energy values from the Arrhenius equation of the batters with and without TS were about 23-26 kJ/mol and not significantly different (p>0.05) suggesting that adding TS did not alter the thermal stability of the WF-based batters.