John-Nelson Ekumah, Xu Han, Qiufang Liang, Lixin Kang, Benxi Wei, Arif Rashid, Muhammad Safiullah Virk, Abdul Qayum, Selorm Yao-Say Solomon Adade, Nana Adwoa Nkuma Johnson, and Xiaofeng Ren
Producing starch gels with superior mechanical attributes remains a challenging pursuit. This research sought to develop a simple method using ethanol exposure to produce robust starch gels. The gels’ mechanical properties, rheology, structural characteristics, and digestion were assessed through textural, rheological, structural, and in vitro digestion analyses. Our investigation revealed an improvement in the gel’s strength from 62.22 to178.82 g. The thermal transitions were accelerated when ethanol was elevated. The exposure to ethanol resulted in a reduction in syneresis from 11% to 9.5% over a period of 6 h, with noticeable changes in size and color. Rheologically, the dominating storage modulus and tan delta (