ABSTRACT
Sorghum undergoes structural changes during tempering, steam cooking, and flaking at various tempering moisture levels. Physical properties of flakes, digestibility, birefringence, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and environmental SEM (ESEM) were used to evaluate the quality of steam-flaked sorghum from grain containing 11–23% water. As moisture levels increased, the flakes became stronger (57–69% whole flakes) and less dusty (9–4% fines). The diameter of the flakes varied among moisture levels, but preflake and final flake moisture contents increased as the temper level increased. Starch birefringence remained unchanged after tempering, and decreased only slightly after steam cooking; gelatinization occurred primarily during the flaking process. The steaming process prepared the grain for flaking by heating and softening the kernels. Tempering allowed extra water to penetrate inside the kernel endosperm. More starch granules had the opportunity to reach the glass transition temperature (T
g) during flaking. Based on subjective evaluation, birefringence, and SEM, poor quality flakes were opaque, chalky in appearance, and prone to high levels of breakage. The starch granules were more intact and less tightly packed into the flake. Good quality flakes were translucent, thin, and strong, with little chalkiness, and low levels of dust and fines. The dehydrated gelatinized starch continuous phase surrounding the granules reduced the amount of air spaces within the flake, increasing the translucency. ESEM inspection revealed that starch was more extensively gelatinized in the tempered samples. The starch granules were much larger in diameter, and the relative level of gelatinization, evident by the presence of starch granules with collapsed centers, was much higher.
