Influence of different dispersing systems on rheological and microstructural properties of citrus fiber suspensions

The propensity of edible fiber to structure aqueous suspensions can be tuned also by modifying the process adopted to disperse it in water. In this paper a rotor-stator homogenizer and a high pressure microfluidizer are used to produce fiber aqueous suspensions with increasing fiber content, investigating the effects of process conditions on rheological properties and particles-size distribution of these materials. An isoenergy criterion was chosen to vary the power supplied by the rotor-stator device to suspensions, and, on the other hand, two operating pressures were used to produce a second set of suspensions via microfluidization. The obtained results highlighted the greater propensity of microfluidizer to disrupt particles, stabilizing the final system by varying mainly the network extension. Finally, a fractal model was adopted to predict the rheological behavior of suspensions as a function of fiber content.