Physicochemical properties and microstructural behaviors of rice starch/soy proteins mixtures at different proportions

Rice starch (RS) and soy protein (SP) were mixed at various ratios and the physicochemical, rheological and tribological properties of the resulted pastes were analyzed. Microscopy and spectral techniques were applied to follow the structural changes during cooling and heating processes. Higher proportion of SP resulted in lower swelling power. According to DSC and RVA results, SP inhibited the gelatinization of starch, leading to higher pasting temperature; the peak, trough, final viscosities, set back and enthalpy changes were decreased with increasing SP concentration. All the samples presented a shear thinning behavior and the mixtures with soy proteins showed lower viscosity, yield stress and consistency coefficient than pure starch paste. The creep-recovery test showed that the addition of soy proteins resulted in more liquid-like mixtures, causing weakening of instantaneous elastic recovery. The combination of rice starch and soy proteins increased the friction, compared with their individual components, except RS/SP 9/1 at sliding speed >20 mm/s. According to the microstructure and spectra analysis, the soy protein adhered on the surface of starch granules, which might have hindered the leaching of amylopectin; and the association between starch and soy proteins mainly occurred when the starch granules were gelatinized, which could be reinforced during starch retrogradation.