Oat b-glucan and its hydrolyzates were used as fat replacers in the production of meatballs. The physicochemical
properties of raw (OG) and hydrolyzed oat b-glucan (OGH), as well as their application in
meatballs were studied. The average molecular weight of OG and OGH was determined by high performance
size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) and was found that OGH decreased from 6.6 106 Da
to 9.4 105 Da (OG) after 1.5 h of enzymatic hydrolysis at 55 C and pH 5.5 using a cellulase dose of
76 U/g. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis was applied to measure the size distribution of OG and
OGH. The mean diameters of OG and OGH were 126.6 nm and 110.3 nm, respectively. The apparent
viscosity of OG and OGH was studied at different concentrations (0.5%, 1.0%, 3.0%) and shear rates
(1e3001). Both OG and OGH had shear-thinning behavior and OGH exhibited a small decrease in the
apparent viscosity. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results showed that OGH and OGH-added
meatball (OGHM) had larger Tp than those of OG and OG-added meatball (OGM), respectively. SEM
images of OGHM exhibited a more smooth surface than blank meatballs. Textural analysis and sensory
evaluation results indicated that the OGH added with 10% fat-rich meatball showed the highest overall
acceptability among the meatball samples, therefore oat b-glucan hydrolyzates are very promising dietary
fiber source used as fat replacer in traditional meatball production.