A possible rheological model of gum candies

An appropriate rheological model can be used in production of good quality gum candy required by consumers. For this purpose Creep-Recovery Test (CRT) curves were recorded with a Stable Micro System TA.XT-2 precision texture analyser with 75 mm diameter cylinder probe on gum candies purchased from the local market. The deformation speed was 0.2 mm s−1, the creeping- and recovering time was 60 s, while the loading force was set to 1 N, 2 N, 5 N, 7 N, and 10 N. The two-element Kelvin-Voigt-model, a three-element model, and the four-element Burgers-model were fitted on the recorded creep data, and then the parameters of the models were evaluated. The best fitting from the used models was given by the Burgers model

Methods to evaluate the effects of bread improver additive on bread crumb texture properties

The aim of the work was to develop a method to evaluate the effect of bread improver dosage on bread crumb texture. Standard breads were prepared to get different crumb structures when bread improver was added to the flour in a concentrate of 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.6%. The additive used in the experiments contains lecithin, ascorbic acid and alpha-amylase. Rheological tests and image analysis were performed to predict the effect of the additive. Hardness, chewiness, gumminess, cohesiveness and springiness were determined by rheological method. The rheological properties neither separately nor combined were able to discriminate the different bread crumb groups. Image processing method was developed to determine the ratio of dark to light area of the images taken of the bread slices. It was concluded that both rheological and visual parameters should be taken into account to characterize bread crumb texture