Enhancing Micro-CT methods to quantify oil content and porosity in starch-gluten matrices

Ingrid Contardo, Pedro Bouchon*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is a non-destructive method to study internal structures based on the differences in the strength of x-ray attenuation within a scanned material. In the field of food science, distinguishing certain components represents a challenge as food ingredients have low x-ray attenuation. The objective of this study was to explore the potential application of different agents to enhance x-ray attenuation in fried starch-gluten products, quantify oil content and air porosity, and analyze its microstructure using micro-CT. Control dough, dough stained with a Lugol solution (0.1% (w/w)) or with a BaCl2 solution (0.5% (w/w)), and samples fried in oil stained with Nile Red (0.05 g/L) or stained with Lugol solution and fried in Nile Red were examined. All agents studied improved x-ray attenuation in fried dough. Quantitative analysis of micro-CT images showed that samples attenuated with Nile Red exhibited the smaller standard deviation in oil content and air porosity. These results did not show significant differences with those determined by means of traditional analytical methods.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)154-161
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Food Engineering
Volume237
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2018
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of CONICYT through the Human Capital Formation Advanced Program for the National Doctoral Fellowship 2013 (Folio 21130468) and the School of Engineering of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, especially Mr. Pedro Álvarez.

Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of CONICYT through the Human Capital Formation Advanced Program for the National Doctoral Fellowship 2013 (Folio 21130468 ) and the School of Engineering of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile , especially Mr. Pedro Álvarez.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

  • Air porosity
  • Micro-CT
  • Microstructure
  • Nile red
  • Oil content
  • X-ray attenuation

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