Starch viscoelastic properties studied with an acoustic wave sensor

Gelatinization and retrogradation of starch was followed in real time with an acoustic wave sensor. This study relies on the monitorization of the frequency of oscillation of a piezoelectric quartz crystal in contact with a 2.5% emulsion of a commercial maize starch, during heating and cooling. The technique showed to be very powerful and sensitive to most of the changes described in the literature, which have been elucidated by some other techniques. The value for the temperature of gelatinization found using the sensor was confirmed by the analysis of the same starch emulsion by polarized light microscopy. Temperatures of gelatinization were found to vary with the sample heating rate, as follows: 73.5 °C at 2.0 °C/min, 66.0 °C at 1.0 °C/min, and 65.0 °C at 0.5 °C/min. Hysteresis of the studied system was evidenced by the frequency shift before heating and after cooling till the initial temperature. Analysis performed on a 1.5% emulsion of a rice starch heated at 2.0 °C/min and cooled as before, evidenced no hysteresis and showed complete reversibility, in which concerns to the series frequency of the piezoelectric quartz crystal.