Classification of the Texture Profiles of Starch Gels

The classification of the texture profiles of five starch gels by sensory evaluation and instru mental measurement was investigated. The sensory evaluation demonstrated that potato starch gel was transparent and elastic, and did not easily crumble ; sweet potato starch gel was crisp ; Kuzu starch gel was chewy ; corn starch gel was easy to crumble ; and sago starch gel was opaque, inelastic and soluble. The eight textural properties were scored by a sensory evaluation of the five starch gels, which were classified for discriminant score although there was a small overlap. The greatest score difference was between the potato and sago starches ; sweet potato, Kuzu and corn starches scored between these two extremes. Of the properties by instrumental measurement, the turbidity of corn starch gel was the highest, the others being in the order of Kuzu>sweet potato>sago>potato . The potato and sweet potato starch gels were comparatively hard with strong adhesiveness, corn starch gel was soft with low cohesiveness and weak adhesiveness, and Kuzu and sago starch gels had intermediate characteristics. The static viscoelasticity of the starch gels could be analyzed by a four-element mode. Four viscoelastic coefficients and five textural values, and the turbidity (ten parameters in total) were analyzed by stepwise discriminant method . The properties by instrumental measurement of the five starch gels were clearly classified by canonical variables, potato starch having the most contrasting properties to corn starch.