Rheological studies of raw and steamed wheat flour suspensions with added ingredients

<p align="justify">The effect of commonly used ingredients such as salt (NaCl) and oil (groundnut oil) or their mixture on the pasting characteristics using a Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA) and the rheological constants of raw and steamed wheat flour has been studied. All the RVA parameters
showed greater changes for steamed flour compared to
raw flour and also for salt compared to oil. The flour
steamed for 15 min exhibited a point of inflection for
most of the RVA characteristics. Apparent viscosity and
rheological constants showed slight changes at 30% and
33% batter concentrations while much greater changes
were observed at a 36% concentration in the presence of
the added ingredients. The steamed flour showed slightly
lower values of apparent viscosity compared to raw flour
in the presence of salt, oil, or their combination, but
slightly higher values of rheological constants. However,
at a 33% batter concentration, the values showed only
marginal changes, which has implications for the product
preparations.</p>