Assessment of the Starch Gelling Characteristics of Plantain Fufu Flour

Abstract

Gelling is an important functional property of starch; the gelling characteristics of starch vary depending on the source of starch and the amylose and amylopectin content of the starch. Plantain fufu is a starch-based meal that is a solid and visco-elastic-like dumpling. This study was meant to establish the gelling properties of starch in plantain fufu and use that information to establish a preparation recipe for the product and other plantain product derivatives. The plantain fufu was analyzed for its moisture content, which was 9.64 and 9.73%, respectively. Using the Brabender viscograph, the sample weight of the plantain fufu flour was determined to be 32 g, and its water addition was 386 ml. 386 ml of distilled water and 32 g of flour are used to prepare the slurry, which is heated at 1.5 °C/min to 95 °C and stirred at 75 rpm using the Brabender viscograph. Plantain fufu starch started gelling at 66 °C after 11 minutes (pasting temperature). Plantain fufu reached its average maximum gelatinization at 342 ± 7.1 BU at 88 °C after about 26 minutes; further heating of the slurry to 94 °C did not further increase the viscosity of the plantain fufu slurry. Retrogradation sets in after 75 minutes after the sample was cooled from 94 to 50 °C, and at retrogradation, there was a reduction in the viscosity to about 251 ± 5.7 BU. The gelling characteristics of plantain fufu are necessary to outline its preparation recipe by the manufacturer and also to understand the product's stability and behavior after preparation

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