Rheological properties of quinoa-based gels. An alternative for vegan diets

The replacement of meat-based foods by new plant-based matrixes is in the focus of the scientific community. Quinoa is considered a pseudo-cereal which has brought the interest of the numerous researchers, mainly due to its amino acidic profile and bioactive properties. This work analyses the rheological behaviour of gels based on quinoa flour (QF) as a function of QF concentration (300, 250, 200 and 150 g/kg) and temperature (60, 70, 80 and 90 °C). The rheological characterisation comprises from QF dispersion to final gels, passing through the gelling stage by means of oscillatory shear tests. QF dispersions (before the thermal treatment) already exhibited a weak gel-like response, due to the high QF concentration. However, the heat treatment applied indicated that proper QF-based gels were obtained when the processing temperature was above the gelation temperature of the starch (~65 °C). Moreover, the highest viscoelastic moduli were obtained at the higher temperature (90 °C) and QF concentration (300 g/kg, G′1 = 14,300 ± 37 Pa), whereas the smallest values were obtained for lower QF concentration and temperature (G′1 at 60 °C = 1,150 ± 15 Pa).