Important aspect of healthy lifestyle is good nutrition. Nuts are food that is frequently associated with a word healthy. People like to eat them in many different ways, mainly because of high content of proteins, fibers, essential fatty acids and unsaturated fats. Nut butter industry is on the rise, so there is a big need of research in this field.
Rheological and thermal properties have big influence in industrial world. With their help, we can determine sensorical properties, industrial process parameters, storage conditions etc. There are a lot of things that can influence rheological and thermal properties of nut butter, but the biggest are nut type and additives. In the master thesis we analysed four nut butters from three types of nuts and one butter having added oil. We also analysed particle size distribution and check the particles with optical microscope.
We learned, that almond butter has narrow particle size distribution, which resulted in short linear viscoelastic response and hysteresis loop in flow curve. Viscosity of nut butters decreased with increasing fat content. Fat also lowered the values of storage and loss modulus. DSC measurements showed the influence of saturated fat content on melting temperature and protein content on melting enthalpy. Nut butters with highest saturated fat and protein content had highest melting temperature and enthalpy, respectively.
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