Particle Size Fractionation of High-Amylose Rice (Goami 2) Flour as an Oil Barrier in a Batter-Coated Fried System

The particle size effects of high-amylose rice (Goami 2) flour on quality attributes of frying batters were characterized in terms of physicochemical, rheological, and oil-resisting properties. High-amylose rice flours were fractionated into four fractions (70, 198, 256, and 415 μm) of which morphology was also analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Rice flour with smaller particle size exhibited a higher degree of starch gelatinization, giving rise to increased pasting parameters. When the rice flours were incorporated into frying batters, higher steady shear viscosity was observed in the batters with finer rice flour, which could be well characterized by the power law model. In addition, the dynamic viscoelastic properties of the batters were enhanced by the use of rice flour with smaller particle size, which also caused an increase in batter pickup. When subjected to deep fat frying, the batters with finer rice flour exhibited reduced moisture loss. Furthermore, the oil uptake was found to have a positive correlation with the particle size of rice flour (R2 = 0.88), even showing the reduction of oil uptake by 15%. It could be synergistically attributed to the formation of outer starch granular layers, high batter viscosity/pickup, and reduced moisture loss by finer rice flour.