Effect of thickener type on the rheological properties of hot thickened soups suitable for elderly people with swallowing difficulty

Flow and dynamic rheological properties of hot thickened soups for consumption by the elderly people with swallowing difficulty (dysphagia) were investigated at a serving temperature of 60°C. In this study, sea mustard soup (SMS) and dried pollock soup (DPS), which have been widely known as favorable hot soups provided in a domestic hospitals and nursing homes for dysphagic patients, were thickened with four commercial xanthan gum (XG)-based food thickeners (coded A-D) marketed in Korea. Thickened soups prepared with different thickeners showed high shear-thinning flow behaviors (n=0.15-0.21). Apparent viscosity (η_a,50), consistency index (K), storage modulus (G′), and loss modulus (G″) demonstrated differences in rheological behaviors between the XG-based thickeners. The magnitudes of G′ were much higher than those of G″ over the entire range of frequency (ω) with the high dependence on ω, showing the rheological behavior similar to a weak gel. In general, all rheological parameter values of thickened DPS samples were higher when compared to the thickened SMS samples. These results indicate that flow and dynamic rheological properties of hot thickened soups containing commercial XG-based thickeners are strongly dependent on the type of thickener and soup.