NAIVE MODEL OF STARCH GELATINIZATION KINETICS

A naive model of starch gelatinization kinetics was constructed to det ermine a control parameter of the baking process (i. e. a baking index ). Bread dough samples were instantaneously heated at different temper atures (60-90 degrees C) for varying times and then subjected to diffe rential scanning calorimetry to evaluate the extent of starch gelatini zation. Calorimetric traces, after smoothing and standardization, were deconvoluted into one or two Gaussian curves, depending on the treatm ent temperature and time. This suggests that the system is a mixture o f two components, the second of which was found to have lower gelatini zation rare. The kinetic parameterization was only applied to the seco nd Gaussian curve. It was shown that the trend of the second peak fits well with first-order kinetics, where the rate constant varies with t emperature according to the Arrhenius equation (K-0 = 2.8 x 10(18)/s; E(a) = 139 kJ/mol).