Predicting puff pastry margarine performances based on LAOS output

Laminated pastries rely heavily on the unique viscoelastic and plastic properties of margarine. Traditional methods for predicting such properties, such as solid fat content (SFC), hardness, small amplitude oscillatory rheology, and subjective sensory tests (thumb test), often lack the sensitivity to detect subtle variations in margarine possessing similar characteristics. SFC primarily focuses on solid fat content, hardness measurement with cone provides a single-point assessment and identifying linear viscoelastic region cannot adequately describe the non-linear behavior which is crucial for lamination processes involving significant deformations. Additionally, subjective sensory tests are highly operator-dependent and prone to variability and inconsistency. This study introduces Large Amplitude Oscillatory Shear (LAOS) as an approach to characterize the viscoelastic properties of same composition lamination margarines. LAOS, a powerful nonlinear rheological technique, enables precise differentiation of margarines produced with minor variations in processing conditions and maturation temperatures, even when traditional methods fail to detect significant viscoelastic differences. Results demonstrate that LAOS effectively captures the subtle viscoelastic variations between margarines, correlating strongly with their baking performance. This study emphasizes the crucial role of nonlinear rheology, specifically LAOS, in accurately predicting the behavior of lamination margarines and optimizing their performance in baking applications.