Textural properties of starch gels filled with collagen and chitin

Chitin and collagen powders were added as fillers to various starches (potato, sweetpotato, kudzu, corn, wheat, and mung bean), heated at 100 C for 10 min with stirring to make a hot paste and allowed to gel quiescently at 5 C for 2 h in order to investigate the effects of the filler particle on the texture of the gels. The parameters of hardness, cohesiveness and adhesiveness were determined instrumentally and compared. The filler particles of collagen and chitin were effective in increasing hardness of corn starch gels but had no effects on hardness of the potato, sweet potato, kudzu, wheat and mung bean starch gels except at the lower starch concentrations. Cohesiveness was increased slightly in all starch gels by addition of collagen whereas chitin addition only increased the cohesiveness of sweet potato and mung bean starch get. Collagen and chitin addition increased adhesiveness all of starch gels, but the intensity of the effect was most remarkable for collagen. The observed differences in effects was apparently due to differences in the interactions between starches and filler particles arising from differences in the surface properties of the filler particles.