Rehydration Kinetics of Dried Spaghetti with Different Diameters

Abstract

The changes in moisture content over time were measured for commercially available dried spaghetti with five different diameters (1.17 mm to 1.90 mm) during the rehydration process at 30 °C to 80 °C. The change in moisture content over time at any temperature was modeled using a hyperbolic equation for all spaghetti diameters. The activation energy for the initial rehydration process did not depend on the diameter. The temperature dependence of the equilibrium moisture content differed at temperatures higher and lower than approximately 55 °C, which is close to the starch gelatinization temperature. The rehydration process of spaghetti with diameters of 1.17 mm and 1.42 mm differed from that of thicker spaghetti, with thinner spaghetti rehydrating faster at any temperature. A stochastic model was proposed to explain this phenomenon.