High moisture extrusion of wheat gluten: Modeling of the polymerization behavior in the screw section of the extrusion process

Thermomechanical treatment in the screw section of the extrusion process has a major impact on wheat gluten polymerization and subsequent structuring mechanisms that lead to the formation of anisotropic product textures. Therefore, this study presents a modeling approach that allows to predict wheat gluten polymerization at non-isothermal conditions by measuring material temperatures and temperature variations along the screws section. Since no study exists considering modeling of the reaction behavior of plant proteins during extrusion processing, the predictive accuracy of the non -isothermal approach was compared to another approach assuming isothermal conditions by measuring material temperature at die exit and mean residence time. Results show that the approach considering non -isothermal conditions significantly improved the predictive accuracy of wheat gluten polymerization as compared to the results from isothermal modeling.