Rheology of food hydrogels, and organogels

Abstract

Hydrogels and organogels are three-dimensional structures with the ability to retain large amounts of liquid in their networks. Hydrogels contain water as the liquid phase whereas organogels structure a nonpolar solvent. Food-grade organogels generally entrap edible oils in their gel matrices. Both gel systems show viscoelastic characteristics and the degree of viscoelastic properties depends on the type and concentration of the used gelators and liquid phases. Biodegradable polymers such as various proteins and polysaccharides are mostly used for hydrogel production. Lipid-based gelators including waxes, fatty acids, fatty alcohols, and lecithin are generally used for the production of organogels. The incorporation of hydrogels and organogels into food systems influences the rheological behaviors and organoleptic properties of such systems. Therefore, rheological characterization of various hydrogel and organogel systems is quite important to achieve food products with desired rheological and textural properties. There is also a growing interest in the combination of hydrogels and organogels to produce bigel systems with distinct rheological properties.