The alleviative effect of curdlan on the quality deterioration of konjac glucomannan thermo-irreversible gels after commercial sterilization at 121 °C

This work employed different curdlan concentrations (0.00 %, 1.00 %, 1.50 %, 2.00 %, and 2.50 %) to alleviate the quality degradation of konjac glucomannan (KGM) gels after commercial sterilization at 121 °C for 15 min. The results showed that all levels of curdlan could retard the deterioration of KGM gels, with the best effect at 2.00 %. After commercial sterilization, incorporating curdlan into KGM gels greatly reduced the Tan σ (G"/ G'), total relaxation time and half-free water from 0.52, 89.85 ms and 98.26 % to 0.27, 38.48 ms and 21.42 %, respectively. Moreover, the addition of curdlan imparted a better texture to KGM gels, as reflected in the increase of hardness, springiness, water-holding capacity and whiteness value from 1400.85 g, 0.42, 87.92 % and 33.33 to 3461.68 g, 0.80, 96.50 % and 49.27, respectively. Furthermore, SEM images revealed that curdlan endowed KGM gels with a tighter structure and smaller pores, and the pore size distribution was reduced from 113.46 μm to17.91 μm, indicating a stronger interaction among molecules, as evidenced by XRD and FTIR results. KGM gels with curdlan possessed less proportion of complete crystallites and crystalline region. These findings suggested that curdlan can be the potently protectant for improving the quality of commercially sterilized KGM gel-based products.