NAIVE MODEL OF STARCH GELATINIZATION KINETICS

A naive model of starch gelatinization kinetics was constructed to determine a control parameter of the baking process (i. e. a baking index). Bread dough samples were instantaneously heated at different temperatures (60-90 degrees C) for varying times and then subjected to differential scanning calorimetry to evaluate the extent of starch gelatinization. Calorimetric traces, after smoothing and standardization, were deconvoluted into one or two Gaussian curves, depending on the treatment temperature and time. This suggests that the system is a mixture of two components, the second of which was found to have lower gelatinization rare. The kinetic parameterization was only applied to the second Gaussian curve. It was shown that the trend of the second peak fits well with first-order kinetics, where the rate constant varies with temperature according to the Arrhenius equation (K-0 = 2.8 x 10(18)/s; E(a) = 139 kJ/mol).