Functional Properties of Foods. Database and Model Prediction

摘要

A food system is characterized by several physicochemical properties. Some of those physicochemical properties affecting the food system during preparation, processing, storage and consumption are defined functional properties. A wide range of functional properties are delivered mainly by proteins, due to their structural characteristics and amphiphilic nature. Additionally, protein functionality is affected by extrinsic factors such as temperature, pH, ionic strength, and interaction with other components. The novelty of the present study was the collection of experiment data in a database from the available scientific journals, regarding the values of water absorption index, water solubility index, protein dispersibility index, nitrogen solubility index, gluten index and wet gluten and secondly the investigation of statistical models for optimum correlation of the retrieved data. The published data was then organized based on the experimental factors. For the water absorption index and water solubility the main experimental factors were the leading extrusion parameters such as die temperature, screw speed, feed moisture content. The extrinsic factors concerning the protein dispersibility index and nitrogen solubility index was the pH, the amount of heat treatment, the total time of treatment and the level of enzymatic hydrolysis. Finally, for gluten index and wet gluten the correlated factors were the wheat genotype, fertilization level, crop location, and the exist subunits of genotype. Furthermore, mathematical models were developed to describe the relationship between functional variables and the main experimental factors. The statistical models fit the experimental data as closely as the experimental variance (literature noise) would allow. The estimation of parameters of power low regression models was conducted by the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm and the regression diagnostic shows a good fit of datasets to functional properties. The investigation of food functional properties is of great importance for food industry as they affect the quality and acceptance of the final product.