Retrogradation is the principal cause for bread staling and, therefore, it has attracted a lot of interest from the food industry. In this study, the inhibitory effect of citrus peel hydrolysates (CPH) on retrogradation of wheat starch (WS) in the presence of sucrose was investigated. The pasting properties showed that further addition of CPH caused a lower setback value than the addition of sucrose alone. Hardness of the gel, retrograded at 4 °C for five days, showed a similar tendency, which was reduced more in CPH addition than WS itself or sucrose addition alone. The low retrogradation enthalpy of the CPH including starch gel also indicated the positive effect of CPH on retarding retrogradation. These results suggested that incorporation of CPH in starch-based foods would be effective for inhibiting retrogradation, preventing the deterioration of the quality of food products.
Keywords: citrus peel; hydrolysates; retrogradation; textural property; wheat starch.