PROBING MOLECULAR AND STRUCTURAL THERMAL EVENTS IN CEREAL-BASED PRODUCTS

Thermal and molecular analyses of cereal food systems have been consid ered as a new approach to clarify these complex systems. The roles of glass transition, crystal melting, phase separation, and molecular mob ility and interaction, are of great interest. The starch melting and g lass-rubber transition, for instance, are complex, biphasic phenomena. NMR, X-ray diffraction, and many other methods have brought out new e vidence and arguments for different models. Glass-rubber transitions o f gluten and its components have been reported by various techniques. Thermal events in bread at various moisture levels observed by DSC, DM A and TMA are compared in terms of theological properties, volume expa nsion, and melting behavior. The staling of bread is described as a fu nction of storage time and moisture loss.