Award details

NMR/MRI studies of biopolymer functionality in foods in processing / storage

Reference	BBS/E/F/04211051
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Brian Hills
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Quadram Institute Bioscience
Department	Quadram Institute Bioscience Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	102,481
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/1999
End date	31/03/2000
Duration	12 months

Abstract

The distribution and dynamic state of water in complex heterogeneous biopolymer systems plays an essential role in determining their functional response to heat, mechanical and chemical processing. For example, the distribution and dynamic state of water inside starch granules affects their swelling and gelatinization characteristics during thermal processing, microwaving and chemical modification. The microscopic distribution of water in mixed biopolymer gels and biopolymer-stabilised emulsions and foams also affects their stability and rheological properties. It is therefore important to develop techniques capable of non-invasively monitoring the state of water and its spatial distribution over a wide range of distance and time scales. While microstructure can be examined with a range of microscopic and scattering techniques NMR is unique in being capable of probing the distribution and dynamic state of water non- invasively even in opaque, complex heterogeneous biopolymer systems. We therefore propose to use a range of novel NMR techniques, including field-cycling relaxometery, q-space microscopy, fringe field diffusion and microimaging to examine the relationship between the dynamic state and microscopic distribution of water and the rheological and processing characteristics of complex biopolymer and biopolymer-stabilised systems.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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