Effect of Gums in Microstructure and Rheological Behaviour of Thickened Food Matrices

Dysphagia is defined as the difficulty in swallowing. Treatment for dysphagia generally begins with a behavioural intervention, such as diet modification, where thickened foodstuffs are used to control the flow rates during oral manipulation and swallowing. The objective of this work is to understand the effect of gums presence in the microstructure and rheological behaviour of thickened food matrices, such as water, apple juice, and tomato juice. The presence of gums in starch based thickeners influences the viscoelastic behaviour of the resulting beverages, providing less firm pastes. Microscopic images showed that this could be attributed to the disruption of the swollen starch granules distribution by the gums, especially at lower concentrations in water and apple juice. These differences decreased when increasing concentration. Moreover, significant changes were observed in the behaviour of the systems during swallowing.