Effects of sugar, protein and water content on wheat starch gelatinization due to microwave heating

 Understanding the interactions between sugar, starch, protein and water, which are the main components of a baked product, will advance the development of high quality, microwaveable products. This paper presents a mathematical model describing the quantitative relationships between water, sugar and protein on the gelatinization of wheat starch following 20 s of microwave heat as determined by differential scanning calorimetry. Addition of sugar decreased the degree of gelatinization of starch due to microwave heating significantly. Water and protein were not found to be as significant as sugar in delaying gelatinization. The effects of sugar and protein on the gelatinization of starch were pronounced in water-limited systems. The model could be used to describe systems containing 33–67% water, 0–33% sucrose and 0–5.8% protein, with a coefficient of determination of 0.91. Received: 29 June 1998