Detecting interactions between starch and casein in imitation cheese by FTIR and Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

In imitation cheese, the interactions and structure formation are important for product behavior and quality. Binary interactions (protein-fat, protein-starch, and starch-fat) are well studied. Complex systems containing protein, starch, and fat are still not well understood. Spectroscopic methods, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman, have shown potential to provide some of this missing information, why they were chosen for this study. A range of imitation cheeses with the same dosage of starch, casein, and fat with variation in starch modification along with simple two-component references were produced and studied with FTIR and Raman spectroscopy. FTIR revealed some variation depending on the starch modification and an overall detection of fat, casein, and starch was possible. In Raman, large variations were detected between repetitions and Principal component analysis (PCA) showed no clustering of samples. The controls could however be separated. Overall, FTIR was a better solution for this sample type compared to Raman. This study revealed how much information can be achieved about the structural network in complex foods by spectroscopic analysis with FTIR and Raman.

Keywords

• Microstructural composition
• Modified potato starch
• FTIR spectroscopy
• Raman spectroscopy
• Chemometrics