Moisture Sorption Isotherms of Polydextrose and Its Gelling Efficiency in Inhibiting the Retrogradation of Rice Starch

As an anti-staling agent in bread, the desorption isotherm of polydextrose has not been studied due to a very long equilibrium time. The adsorption and desorption isotherms of five Chinese polydextrose products were measured in the range of 0.1-0.9 a_w and 20-35 °C by a dynamic moisture sorption analyzer. The results show that the shape of adsorption and desorption isotherms was similar to that of amorphous lactose. In the range of 0.1-0.8 a_w, the hysteresis between desorption and adsorption of polydextrose was significant. The sorption isotherms of polydextrose can be fitted by seven commonly used models, and our developed seven-parameter polynomial, the adsorption equations of generalized D'Arcy and Watt (GDW) and Ferro-Fontan, and desorption equations of polynomial and Peleg, performed well in the range of 0.1-0.9 a_w. The hysteresis curves of polydextrose at four temperatures quickly decreased with a_w increase at a_w ˂ 0.5, andthereafter slowly decreased when a_w ≥ 0.5. The polynomial fitting hysteresis curves of polydextrose were divided into three regions: ˂0.2, 0.2-0.7, and 0.71-0.9 a_w. The addition of 0-10% polydextrose to rice starch decreased the surface adsorption and bulk absorption during the adsorption and desorption of rice starch, while it increased the water adsorption value at a_w ≥ 0.7 due to polydextrose dissolution. DSC analysis showed that polydextrose as a gelling agent inhibited the retrogradation of rice starch, which could be used to maintain the quality of cooked rice.