Gelatinizing, Pasting, and Gelling Properties of Potato and Amaranth Starch Mixtures

ABSTRACT Physicochemical properties of mixtures of native potato and native amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus), heat‐moisture treated (HMT) potato and heat‐moisture treated amaranth, cross‐linked potato and cross‐linked amaranth, native potato and heat‐moisture treated amaranth, and heat‐moisture treated potato, and native amaranth were tested at different ratios. Two peaks were noticed in the pasting curves when large differences of swelling factor and amylose leaching existed between individual components in the mixture. It seems that amylose leaching from one starch in a mixture may affect the swelling and much of the granular break down of the other. The mixtures showed stabilities in hot pastes that were higher than the less stable components in a mixture. Some mixtures such as HMT potato and native amaranth showed very specific nonadditive pasting behavior. Mixing 10% of native amaranth to HMT potato starch caused a large reduction of peak viscosity and cold paste viscosity, resulting in a very soft gel. In the differential scanning calorimeter, each component of a mixture gelatinized independently, showing two peaks corresponding to the individual components. When transition temperatures of both components were similar in DSC, the result was a single endotherm. Dramatic changes of pasting and subsequent gel properties resulted when thermal transition of the two components occurred in the same temperature range. Retrogradation enthalpies as measured by DSC were between the two individual components in all tested mixtures.