Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
The rheological behaviour of fruit purees was measured at different temperatures (20ºC–
40ºC) in a rotational viscometer. The rheograms were fitted with the Power Law or Ostwald
de Waele model, the Herschel-Bulkley model, the Casson model, and the Cross model. The
best adjustment was obtained with the Cross model, except for systems fruit purees 2 and 4,
which were fitted satisfactorily with Power Law model. Flow curves exhibited at all temper-
atures a pseudoplastic character after applying a shear stress higher than a critical value.
INTRODUCTION
Commercial baby food is a good nutritional complement for the suckling baby and
they are very useful for parents. Milk as unique food from the six months does not provide
energy and nutrients that baby needs at this age, in addition, as their digestive functions
have matured, new foods must be included in his diet, following regulated norms.
The habitual form to introduce a complementary feeding must be replaced each milk
intaking that baby receives by different components from the complementary feeding
(cereals baby food, fruit puree, vegetable puree). These replacements must be done of one
by one, with a sufficient interval so that baby accepts new foods, and hereby to confirm
his tolerance before introducing a new food, this process is for giving time to the adapta-
tion of his organism. It is very important in this period, to allow that the amount of food
can vary from a day to another one and from one week to another one, according to the
appetite of the baby.
In diverse circumstances, infants need to feed with homogenized infantile foods.
These foods can be made up of: vegetables, fruits, meats, fish, milky or mixes, whose
exclusive purpose is to establish an infantile nutritional regime. The nutritious composi-
tion and norms of quality, production and elaboration of these products are collected in the
Director 96/5/CEE, which demands that these products must be elaborated following strict
norms of control of quality and with a suitable nutritious value.[1]
321
322 ÁLVAREZ ET AL.
Fruit purees are elaborated with varied fruits (peach, apple and banana, or others
like apricot, orange or pineapple), and enriched or not with vitamins. Water or juices
are added to fruits. Moreover these can include milk, cheese, biscuits, cereals and
sugar that they will indicate in the label. Their ingredients are controlled strictly; this
guarantees the quality and the nutritious contribution of these purees to obtain a cor-
rect grown of baby. They avoid the existence of preservatites or pesticides to offer a
first quality product.
The fruits purees produced commercially have increased in popularity during
the last years, due to nutritional benefits for the infants, as also by the comfort in the
handling and consumption of these products. For reasons described previously and
because it is very important for the market in Europe, it is necessary to assure the
quality of baby foods. On the other hand, for the food industry is essential to have
knowledge of some parameters as apparent viscosity among others, because the flow
behaviour plays an important role in the design and optimization of the processes,
control process, quality control[2–5] within the food industry in particular for the
derivatives of fruits.
A point of considerable interest is the effect of temperature upon the flow prop-
erties. Various studies made have looked and analyzed the effect of temperature on
apparent viscosity for different fruits juice and fruit purees.[6–11] In addition, some
further investigations have characterized the flow behaviour of samples of commer-
cial banana and peach baby foods. [12] In these studies were observed the behaviour of
flow of the different samples, in which it was found that the flow parameters
were changing significantly according to the manufacturer and the type of sample.
All the made studies confirm non-Newtonian behaviour of many of fruit purees
analyzed.[7,13–16]
The present paper was one focused in the study of the effect of temperature upon the
rheological behaviour of different kinds of commercial fruit purees. In this study some
rheological models were used to determine the relationship between shear stress as func-
tion of shear rate to different temperatures. Rheograms were fitted according to the
following models: Power Law or Ostwald de Waele model, Herschel-Bulkley model,
Casson model, and Cross model.
Puree 1. Apple (76%), peach (18%), honey (4%), apple juice concentrated and
vitamin C, without gluten.
Puree 2. Banana (35%), water, orange (17%), sugar, biscuits without gluten (7%),
lemon, rise starch, and vitamin C.
Puree 3. Peach pulp (27%), water, milk, sugar, creamed fresh cheese (6%), apricot,
rise starches and maize, lemon juice, apple concentrated, rice flour, cream, and vitamin C.
Puree 4. Apple (67%), pineapple (19%), pear (4%), sugar, and cereals (3%) (rice,
maize, tapioca).
Puree 5. milk (40%), apple, pineapple, banana, and sugar.
RHEOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FRUIT PUREES 323
Rheological Parameters
The Cross model described well the flow behaviour of systems fruit purees for each
temperature, as compared with other models. However, in the case of systems fruit Purees 2
and 4 the model that better fitted the experimental data was the Power Law.
324 ÁLVAREZ ET AL.
90
80
70
60
τ (Pa)
50
40
30
20
0 100 200 300 400 500
γ (s )
–1
Figure 1 Shear Stress vs. shear rate for system fruit puree 5 at all temperatures: (䊐) 20°C; (䊉) 25°C; (Δ) 30°C;
(䉬) 35°C; (∇) 40°C.
2
η (Pa.s)
0
0 100 200 300 400 500
γ (s–1)
Figure 2 Viscosity vs. shear rate for system puree 5 at all temperatures: (䊐) 20°C; (䊉) 25°C; (Δ) 30°C; (䉬)
35°C; (∇) 40°C.
Systems purees 1, 3, and 5. Systems purees 1, 3, and 5 were fitted with Cross
model, and the adjusted determination coefficient in all cases was higher than 0.998. The
Cross model was represented as:
⎛ ⎞
⎜ η0 −η∞ ⎟
ηa =η∞ +⎜ (1)
.m⎟
⎜⎝ 1 + α γ ⎟⎠
c
Where γ is the shear rate (s−1), ηa the apparent viscosity (Pa s), h0 the zero-shear rate vis-
cosity (Pa s), h∞ the infinite-shear rate viscosity (Pa s), ac (sm) is time constant, and m is
dimensionless constant. The constant αc is expressed by the ratio k1/k0, where k0+k1 γn is
the rate constant for the rupture of linkages; the parameter ac is related to the relaxation
time of the structural species responsible for shear thinning and the onset of shear-thinning
RHEOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FRUIT PUREES 325
4
8 20°C 40°C
3
6
η (Pa.s)
η (Pa.s)
2
4
1
2
0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
γ (s–1)
γ (s–1)
Figure 3 Viscosity vs. shear rate for all systems analyzed at: 20 and 40°C. (䉲) Puree 1; (䊉) Puree 2; (䉬) Puree
3; (䊐) Puree 4; (䉫) Puree 5.
4 3
40°C 40°C
3
2
η (Pa.s)
η (Pa.s)
2
1
1
0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
γ (s–1) γ (s–1)
(a) (b)
Figure 4 Viscosity vs. shear rate for different systems fitted with rheological models: (䉲) Puree 1; (䊉) Puree 2;
(䉬) Puree 3; (䊐) Puree 4; (䉫) Puree 5.
326 ÁLVAREZ ET AL.
The flow behaviour was largely affected by temperature. In the Table 2 can be observed
parameters of the Cross model that were obtained from the adjustment of the experimental
data of the systems mentioned previously. Equation 1 was used to fit systems by means of
the Cross model.
Systems fruit purees 2 and 4. As can be seen in Figure 4b, the Power Law
model described well the flow behaviour of systems puree 2 and puree 4, for each temper-
ature, the adjusted determination coefficient being in all cases higher than 0.999. The
Power Law model was represented as:
η = K •γ n −1 , (2)
where K is the consistency coefficient, and n is the flow behaviour index. The values of the
flow behaviour index and consistency coefficient, n and K, are reported in Table 3. It can
be observed that n has a value less than 1, indicating pseudoplasticity. For flow curves of
system puree 2 the flow behaviour index varies from 0.374 to 0.414. Whereas, flow curves
System T (ºC) n K
of system puree 4 the flow behaviour index varies from 0.286 to 0.280. Figure 5 shows the
influence of the temperature on consistency coefficient and flow behaviour index.
From a practical point of view, we have decided to describe effects of temperature
and total solids content on consistency and flow behaviour index by one combined model.
(a) 0.3
0.3
0.29
0.29
0.28
0.28
0.27
n
0.27
n
0.26
0.26
0.25
0.25
0.24
25 0.24
T( 30
°C) 21.
35 3
%
40 21.4 Solid
(b) 26.5
26.5
26
26
25.5
25.5
K
25
25
24.5
24.5
24
24
25
30 21.
T (° 3
C) 35 %
Solid
40 21.4
Figure 5 Response surfaces for the effect of temperature and total solids on rheological parameters of puree 4.
328 ÁLVAREZ ET AL.
Table 4 Regression coefficients of the models for rheological parameters of puree 2 and 4.
Parameter a0 a1 a2 b1 b2 b3
In the literature, some authors[24,25] used the combined effect of temperature and total sol-
ids content on thses parameters to describe the flow behaviour of fruit purees. In this
work, a response surface methodology was selected to investigate this effect on rheologi-
cal parameters of purees 2 and 4, and a quadratic polynomial regression model was
assumed for predicting the individual variables. The model proposed for rheological
parameters is:
ai
y = a0 + ∑ + ∑ bi T ,
i (3)
i
S
CONCLUSIONS
From this study, it can be determined that temperature significantly affected the
flow characteristics of all cases analyzed. Systems purees 1, 3, and 5 could be accurately
described with 3-parameters of the Cross model, which were sensitive to change in tem-
perature. On the other hand, systems 2 and 4 were fitted well by the Power Law. In the
same way, such as in the case of systems fitted by Cross model, Power Law parameters
(behaviour index and consistency coefficient) were affected by change in temperature.
This effect was analyzed with the Response Surface Methodolgy and three-dimensional
figures were presented to identify the effects of temperature and total solids content.
Good fit models were developed for consistency and flow behaviour index. The results
of this work have direct application to fruit puree processes involving fluid flow and
heat transfer.
REFERENCES
1. Ahmed, J.; Ramaswamy, H.S. Viscoelastic properties of sweet potato puree infant food. Journal
of Food Engineering 2006, 74, 376–382.
2. Brennan, J.G.; Butters, J.R.; Cowell, N.D.; Lilly, A.E.V. Las operaciones de la ingeniería de los
alimentos. Ed. Acribia, 1980.
RHEOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FRUIT PUREES 329
3. Dail, R.V.; Steffe, J.F. Rheological characterization of cross-linked waxy maize starch solutions
under low acid aseptic processing conditions using tube viscosimetry techniques. Journal of
Food Science 1990, 9, 151–191.
4. Dail, R.V.; Steffe, J.F. Dilatancy in starch solutions under low acid aseptic processing condi-
tions. Journal of Food Science 1990, 55, 1764–1765.
5. Alvarez, E.; Cancela, A.; Maceiras. R. Rheological Behaviour of Powdered Baby Foods. Inter-
national Journal of Food Properties 2005, 8, 79–88.
6. Saravacos, G.D. Effect of temperature on viscosity of fruit juice and purées. Journal of Food
Science 1970, 35, 123–125.
7. Rao, M.A.; Palomino, L.N.; Bernhardt, L.N. Flow properties of tropical fruits purees. Journal
Food Science 1974, 39, 160–161.
8. Chiampo, F.; Tasso, M.; Occelli, A.; Conti, R. Rheological properties of fruit purees. Industria
Conserve 1996, 71 (3), 331–336.
9. Krokida M.K.; Maroulis Z.B.; Saravacos G.D. Rheological properties of fluid fruit and vegeta-
ble puree products: compilation of literature data. International Journal of Food Properties 2001,
4 (2), 179–200.
10. Ahmed, J.; Ramaswamy, H.S. Response Surface Methodology in Rheological Characterization
of Papaya Puree. International Journal of Food Properties 2004, 7 (1), 45–58.
11. Ditchfield, C.; Tadini, C.C.; Singh R.; Toledo, R.T. Rheological Properties of Banana Puree at
High Temperaturas. International Journal of Food Properties 2004, 7 (3), 571–584.
12. Barbosa Cánovas, G.; Peleg, M. Flow parameters of selected commercial semi-liquid food prod-
ucts. Journal of Texture Studies 1983, 14, 213–234.
13. Holdsworth, S.D. Applicability of rheological models to the interpretation of flow and process-
ing behaviour of fluid food products. Journal of Texture Studies 1971, 2, 393–418.
14. Maceiras, R.; Álvarez, E.; Cancela, M.A. Rheological Properties of Fruit Purees: Effect of
Cooking. Journal of Food Engineering 2007, 80 (3), 763–769.
15. Guerrero, S.N.; Alzadora, S.M. Effect of pH, Temperature and Glucose Addition on Flow
Behaviour of Fruit Purees I. Banana Purée. Journal of Food Engineering 1997, 33, 239–256.
16. S Guerrero, S.N.; Alzadora, S.M. Effect of pH, Temperature and Glucose Addition on Flow
Behaviour of Fruit Purees: II. Peach, Papaya and Mango Purées. Journal of Food Engineering
1998, 37, 77–101.
17. Chamberlain, E.K.; Rao, M.A. Rheological properties of acid converted waxy maize starches in
water and 90 DMSO/10% water. Carbohydrate Polymers 1999, 40, 251–260.
18. Prentice, J.H. Measurements in the rheology of foodstuffs; Elsevier Applied Science Publishers:
London; UK, 1984.
19. Cross, M.M. Rheology of non-Newtonian flow: equation for pseudoplastic systems. Journal of
Colloidal Science 1965, 20, 417–437.
20. Lopes da Silva, J.A. Rheological characterization of pectin and pectin-galactomannan disper-
sions and gels. PhD thesis Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, 1994.
21. Barnes, H.A. The yield stress-a review-everything flows?. Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid
Mechanics 1999, 81, 133–178.
22. Barnes, H.A.; Hutton, J.F.; Walters, K. An Introduction to rheology; Elsevier Science Publish-
ing Company Inc.: New York, 1989.
23. Morris, E.R. Rheology of Hidrocolloids. In Gums and Stabilisers of the Food Industry; G.O. Phillips,
D.J. Wedlock and P.A. Williams, Eds; Pergamon Press: London, UK, 1984; 57–78.
24. Ilicali, D.R.C. Correlation for the consitency coefficients of apricot and pear purees. Journal of
Food Engineering 1985, 8, 47–51.
25. Ahmed, J., & Ramaswamy. Response surface methodology in rheological characterization of
papaya puree. International Journal of Food Properties 2004, 7, 45–58.