Food viscosity, temperature dependency

The viscosity of solutions is quite temperature dependent increasing the temperature leads to a reduction in viscosity, which approaches zero at approximately 60°C (322). The viscosity is relatively stable from pH 3—10 and is compatible with a number of inorganic salts other than sodium. The production of succinoglycan and its potential use in foods and industrial processes as a thickening agent has been described (322). 

For foods with high sugar content and at relatively low temperatures, the simple Arrhenius relationship may not be adequate to characterize the temperature dependence (10, H). For highly concentrated sugar solutions, the WLF equation (Equation 8) was shown to be satisfactory (12) to describe the influence of temperature on the viscosity. 

Oil penetration depends on the shape of food, its textural properties, porosity, the viscosity of the frying medium, and the temperature and duration of frying. Increased viscosity results in larger volumes of absorbed oil. Food that is high in initial fat content does not absorb oil. On the contrary, fat is leached from the food into the oil. 

This simple technique permits the quantitative analysis of volatile compounds in various liquid, semi-liquid or solid foods, in biological fluids and tissues, and environmental contaminants in water, air and soils. The method is very sensitive to the equilibrium solute distribution between phases at the temperature selected for the analysis. Equilibration is greatly dependent on the solubility and viscosity of the samples. This method is particularly suited to highly volatile compounds because they have a favorable equilibrium between liquid (or solid) phase and its headspace, producing a higher concentration of volatile compounds in the headspace. 

However, amorphous water-soluble materials, such as food materials, deform viscoelastically. The deformation and relaxation behavior of such materials can be described by means of various viscoelastic models. Depending on the nature of the stress/strain applied, either the storage and loss modulus or the elasticity and the viscosity are included as material parameters in these models. These rheological material parameters depend on the temperature and the water content as well as on the applied strain rate. The viscoelastic deformation enlarges the contact area and decreases the distance between the particles (see Fig. 7.3). If the stress decreases once again, the achieved deformation is partially reversed (structural relaxation). 

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