Thermal analysis and food quality

Thermogravimetry (TG) and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) are proposed as a fast and sensitive tool to discriminate the industrial processing of spaghetti pasta by focusing the attention on the thermal profiles of the structured water release. Thirteen different name-brand and store-brand kinds of spaghetti pasta were analysed. The results show different profiles according to the drying procedures. By on-line coupling a FTIR spectrometer to the thermobalance, the evolved gas analysis (EGA) allowed to confirm the water releasing step.