ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews characterization mainly by calorimetry of thermally induced conformational changes and phase transitions in pre- and postprocessed cereal biopolymers and the use of calorimetric data in the construction of state diagrams. It discusses the utilization of mechanical properties in expanding the understanding of biopolymers during processing. The chapter examines the benefits of employing state diagrams in development of new products or in the design of new processes or the improvement of existing processes through specific illustrations of the applications of state diagrams reported in the literature. State diagrams are important to assess and to optimize the temperatures and water contents used in the processing of cereals. Thermal, rheological, and spectroscopic techniques are employed to characterize the physical state of materials. Thermally induced transitions as a function of moisture content can be determined from specific heat capacity versus temperature curves.
