4. Conclusions
We have demonstrated that application of simple shear flow
and heat in a Couette Cell is a scalable process concept that can
induce fibrous structural patterns to a granular mixture of plant
proteins at mild process conditions. In particular, after processing
the protein blend at 120 C and variable rotational speeds and
process times, a structured SPI-gluten product was formed. A
reduced factorial experimental design was used to search for the
optimum process conditions. Itwas found that the optimum area of
operation is located at 30 ± 5 min process time and 25 ± 5 RPM
rotational speed of the inner cylinder. In particular, samples created
at 120 C, 30 min and 20 RPM exhibited highly fibrous structures
and yielded high average AIs values of 1.67 with individual samples
yielding values up to 3.6. The fibres formed were clearly observed