Efecto de las variables de preparación sobre la textura en alimentos adaptados para pacientes con disfagia Textures adapted for patients suffering dysphagia as affected by preparation variables

Introduction: Dysphagia or difficulty to swallow has a high prevalence among hospitalized elderly (one out of two) and causes serious potential problems such as malnutrition or dehydration and pneumonia. When oral feeding is still possible, oropharyngeal dysphagia requires thickening of liquid consistencies in order to avoid further complications. Commercial thickening agents, mainly consisting in modified starches, are added to either hot or cold food following too general specifications which make it difficult to achieve the proper consistency needed in each case. Objective: This work aimed to describe possible texture changes caused by temperature (10 °C and 50 °C), dosage (nectar, honey and pudding) and time from mixing (0, 3, 5, 10, 20 min) on texture parameters of thickened water in which a common commercial thickener was added. Method: Samples were analyzed on triplicate in a TA.XT2i texture analyzer (Stable Micro System, UK) by a compression-extrusion test with a 2.5 cm diameter probe at 3 mm/s and using a 5 kg load cell. From the curves obtained (force vs. time) texture parameter related to firmness, adhesiveness and work were quantified. Results and conclusion: In general, parameters related to consistency were significantly (α < 0.05) higher in hotter samples, which could be related with initial gelatinization phenomena. Both, increasing thickener concentrations and further time from mixing, also brought higher values in the texture parameters analyzed. These results pointed out the need to perform an exhaustive characterization, including other commercial thickeners and food matrixes, to model the possible variations in texture parameters happening as influence of these and other preparation variables. This could be of great interest in order to offer the most adequate treatment to each patient.