{"title":"Bakla Starch-Based Bigels as Low-Calorie Fat Replacers: Influence of Hydrogel Ratio","authors":"Ayesha Shahid, K. Jayaram Kumar","doi":"10.1007/s11483-025-09939-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study successfully developed plant-based bigels using Bakla starch hydrogel and glycerol monostearate oleogel in various ratios, ideal for use as fortified ingredient substitutes or food analogs. The effects of varying oleogel-to-hydrogel ratios on the microstructure, rheological properties, and stability of bigels were analyzed. As the oil phase increased, the system transitioned from an oleogel/hydrogel structure to a bicontinuous phase, a characteristic of bigel systems. The experimental results indicated that an increase in oleogel content led to an improvement in the hardness, viscosity, and storage modulus of the bigels. Moreover, bigels with oleogel to hydrogel ratios of BG 50:50 to BG 80:20 demonstrated increased hardness, ranging from 134.74 ± 0.33 g to 269.55 ± 0.17 g. X-ray diffraction revealed a broad peak around 20° 2θ, indicative of the amorphous nature of the oil component. FTIR showed that the structural configuration of bigels is governed by physical and steric interactions, reflecting the distinct characteristics of each phase without forming new bonds. The findings demonstrated the potential to create starch-based bigels with desirable, mechanical, rheological properties and stability by adjusting the hydrogel-to-oleogel ratio offering sustainable, low-calorie fat alternatives for novel food products.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":564,"journal":{"name":"Food Biophysics","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Food Biophysics","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11483-025-09939-w","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study successfully developed plant-based bigels using Bakla starch hydrogel and glycerol monostearate oleogel in various ratios, ideal for use as fortified ingredient substitutes or food analogs. The effects of varying oleogel-to-hydrogel ratios on the microstructure, rheological properties, and stability of bigels were analyzed. As the oil phase increased, the system transitioned from an oleogel/hydrogel structure to a bicontinuous phase, a characteristic of bigel systems. The experimental results indicated that an increase in oleogel content led to an improvement in the hardness, viscosity, and storage modulus of the bigels. Moreover, bigels with oleogel to hydrogel ratios of BG 50:50 to BG 80:20 demonstrated increased hardness, ranging from 134.74 ± 0.33 g to 269.55 ± 0.17 g. X-ray diffraction revealed a broad peak around 20° 2θ, indicative of the amorphous nature of the oil component. FTIR showed that the structural configuration of bigels is governed by physical and steric interactions, reflecting the distinct characteristics of each phase without forming new bonds. The findings demonstrated the potential to create starch-based bigels with desirable, mechanical, rheological properties and stability by adjusting the hydrogel-to-oleogel ratio offering sustainable, low-calorie fat alternatives for novel food products.
期刊介绍:
Biophysical studies of foods and agricultural products involve research at the interface of chemistry, biology, and engineering, as well as the new interdisciplinary areas of materials science and nanotechnology. Such studies include but are certainly not limited to research in the following areas: the structure of food molecules, biopolymers, and biomaterials on the molecular, microscopic, and mesoscopic scales; the molecular basis of structure generation and maintenance in specific foods, feeds, food processing operations, and agricultural products; the mechanisms of microbial growth, death and antimicrobial action; structure/function relationships in food and agricultural biopolymers; novel biophysical techniques (spectroscopic, microscopic, thermal, rheological, etc.) for structural and dynamical characterization of food and agricultural materials and products; the properties of amorphous biomaterials and their influence on chemical reaction rate, microbial growth, or sensory properties; and molecular mechanisms of taste and smell.
A hallmark of such research is a dependence on various methods of instrumental analysis that provide information on the molecular level, on various physical and chemical theories used to understand the interrelations among biological molecules, and an attempt to relate macroscopic chemical and physical properties and biological functions to the molecular structure and microscopic organization of the biological material.