Incorporating acetylated starch regulates the structure and sol-gel performance of wheat starch-based binary system

The sol-gel performance of wheat starch (WS) is of great importance for the processing and quality management of flour-based products. Herein, how acetylated starch (AS) inclusion modulates those properties of wheat starch-based system was understood using different techniques, e.g., rheological analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Compared with WS alone, the resultant WS-AS binary system exhibited lower setback viscosity (corresponding to inhibited starch retrogradation as verified by XRD), zero-shear viscosity, moduli, and gel strength, accompanied by a suppressed sol-gel transition. Also, from thixotropy tests, the binary system with AS (WS-8%AS) presented the weakest thixotropy in hysteresis loop and a greater in-shear recovery property (as indicated by the three interval thixotropy test (3-ITT)), and the systems containing 6%–8% AS were proved to show good sol-gel properties. The property improvement could be related to the inhibited retrogradation, according to correlation analysis. In addition, the gel freeze-thaw stability of WS-AS systems was reduced as compared to WS, probably related to phase separations. The present information would facilitate the design of wheat starch-based matrices with regulated quality attributes.