Textural properties of gelled dairy desserts containing κ-carrageenan and starch

Pudding desserts were prepared with κ-carrageenan, skim milk powder (SMP), native maize starch, sucrose and water. A mixture design was used to study the effects of varying concentrations of carrageenan, SMP and starch, while the amount of water and sucrose was kept constant. Mixtures were heated for 20 min at 90 °C. Small amplitude oscillatory measurements were performed and the gelation temperature Tg and the complex modulus G∗ were recorded. Large deformation penetration tests were also carried out to measure the gel strength of the desserts. The size of starch granules was measured using laser diffraction analysis. Second-order Scheffé polynomials were fitted to the experimental data and used to make graphs allowing interpretation of the data. In the defined concentration range, the exclusion effect of starch was found to have an important influence on the dessertʹs properties. This effect was more pronounced than the effect of the milk protein concentration.