Modelagem e otimização do processo de hidratação de cereal matinal com leite

Abstract

Breakfast cereals are extruded products with a high content of protein, carbohydrates and fibers, which are consumed with milk. The mathematical modeling is essential to predict and simulate the behavior of the materials submitted to hydration, in order to discover the best conditions of temperature and hydration time in the process. The objective of this work was to model and optimize the process of breakfast cereal hydration with milk, aiming to find the ideal variables of time and temperature of hydration, as well as the proportion of milk and cereal to obtain a product ready for consumption, besides using two mathematical models and Artificial Neural Network to simulate the kinetics of milk absorption. Hydration was conducted in 3 cereal/milk proportions and 3 immersion temperatures for two hours, with corn cereal (without sugar) and integral UHT milk. The treatments used in hydration (proportion, temperature and time) had a significant effect (p <0.05) on all physical-chemical properties of breakfast cereal hydrated with milk. About mathematical models, the Peleg’s model best described the kinetics of milk absorption in the cereal at the temperatures and proportions investigated, and obtained good adjustments to the experimental data. The application of Artificial Neural Network satisfactorily represented the kinetics of milk absorption.