Development of food thickener with aggregated nutritional value, for the management of dysphagia

Dysphagia is characterized by a dysfunction of the swallowing process, being a prevalent symptom of degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. Foods with modified texture and thickened beverages are traditionally used in the clinical treatment of dysphagia. This study aims to develop a formulation of food thickener with value nutritional aggregate, as well as evaluate its action on various liquid food, under different conditions of preparation time (10 and 120 minutes and 24 hours) temperature (25 degrees C) and refrigeration (10 degrees C). The formulation was composed of whey protein concentrate (WPC), mix of vitamins and minerals and guar gum as a thickening agent. The values obtained for the viscosity showed a difference statistically significant at the 5% level, between the times of thickening, ranging from 58 +/- 3CP to 2848 +/- 3CP, as well as between different samples tested when compared to each other for the same time. However, viscosity measurements showed that the most beverages are in international standards suggested by the National Dysphagia Diet (NDD), for consistency of food for dysphagia patients.