Physical properties of inulin and technological applications Chapter uri icon

abstract

  • This chapter deals about a carbohydrate polymer highly used as an ingredient in food products and commonly consumed by humans, but very often unnoticed: Inulin. The chapter provides an overall view about the inulin, its benefits in humans health, introducing the physical properties, providing a deeper understanding about the relation between its structure and properties, and discussing some technological applications. The chapter is divided into three parts. Section 1 provides an overall view about the inulin and its benefits in humans health and overview some applications. Section 2 introduces the physical properties of inulin, providing a deeper understanding about the relation between its structure and properties. The importance of the amorphous state in inulin is explained, some undesired characteristics presented during the processing of inulin are revealed, state diagrams are introduced, including a complex state diagram for inulin, and the effect of the polymerization degree on the properties is disused as well. Section 3 presents the technological application of inulin, that is, the performance of inulin in food products; a complex state diagram is presented and discussed for the system inulin-orange juice. In general, the chapter is based on the reviewed literature, which is a very recent research topic, and the presentation of some new experimental results. The aim of the work is to present the inulin in such a way that the reader interested in this topic may recognize this material as a very important ingredient in the formulation of food products. Likewise, the reader who is beginning to learn about this material may realize about the importance of the structure of inulin on the final properties of the food product. Ultimately, the expectation of the authors is that the reader after finishing the chapter be motivated to take a food product from his/her refrigerator and look for the presence of inulin in the nutritional information of the product. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.

publication date

  • 2015-01-01