1993 Volume 40 Issue 6 Pages 420-426
Changes in particle size distribution in coagulation reaction of soymilk were measured by laser beam particle analyzer. When calcium chloride solution was continuously added to soymilk, the peak appeared at around 10μm of particle size and then shifted to at about 100μm. Prolonged stirring had no more effect to get particles with reduced sizes. The simultaneous measurement of stirring torque based on our previous report showed characteristic correspondences to the distribution changes of coagulated soymilk particles. The optimum coagulations condition deduced from the analyses of particle size. distribution of coagulated particles under various conditions were as follows: concentration of soymilk; around 5%, coagulation temperature; 60 to 64°C, stirring speed; around 140 rpm, and final concentration of calcium chloride; around 10mM. These results agreed very closely with those of the previous work by torque methods. The average size of coagulated particles at optimum reaction conditions was around 200μm by means of image analysis. Conclusively the final concentration of calcium chloride and the initial stirring speed were the most important controllable factors in order to get the desirable sizes of coagulated soymilk particles.
