Differential scanning calorimeter for evaluation of food structures

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One of the ways to examine structures in food systems is to measure the heat involved in changing these structures. This heat requirement could due to a phase change, such as the melting of ice, but for carbohydrates heat is required to gelatinize the starch granules, while for protein the process of unfolding or denaturing requires heat. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) has the ability to measure the heat taken in or given off as a food sample is heated over a specified temperature range. If changes occur in the structure of the material prior to analysis, this will reflected in the amount of heat that is taken in and the temperature at which this transition occurs. As a result, this is an effective tool for monitoring changes in protein structure as a result of specific modifications or processing operations. Tools that work well on smaller enzymatic proteins are difficult to use with food proteins due to their size and/or solubility.  This equipment will therefore support research programs looking at improving the gelation properties of plant proteins, using treatments such as enzymatic modification of the protein prior to gel formation, as well as characterizing individual polymers in the complex wheat dough system. As the modulated DSC examines the response to both a linear increase in temperature and an oscillating or sinusoidal temperature increase, this provides the advantage of being able to investigate individual proteins in a complex system and improve the sensitivity of the measurements. This information will help us improve our understanding of the mechanisms whereby enzymatic modification of plant protein improves gelation properties and help us characterize the behaviour of proteins in dough.