Influence of sodium chloride and calcium chloride on physical properties of corn starch

Corn starch is widely used in different food products and many of these products contain salts. Therefore, in this study the influence of sodium chloride and calcium chloride (50,100, 150 and 200 mM) on water absorption, textural parameters, pasting properties and gel syneresis of corn starch was determined. The water absorption of starch was decreased by the increase of NaCl concentration. The texture measurements revealed that hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess and chewiness of starch gels were decreased while springiness was not changed significantly. Based on the RVA results, peak, breakdown, setback and final viscosities were decreased but the pasting temperature was increased by the increase of NaCl concentration. However, a reverse trend was observed in samples with CaCl2. Both salts increased the freeze-thaw stability of starch gels and the influence of calcium chloride was more obvious than sodium chloride.