Digestibility prediction of cooked plantain flour as a function of water content and temperature

• State diagram of plantain flour starch and water mixtures was constructed.
• Weibull cumulative model was used to model state diagram.
• In vitro digestibility for plantain flour/water mixtures was determined.
• Digestibility of starch fractions can be predicted using gelatinization rate.

The effect of temperature (T = 55–120 °C) and water content (X1 = 1.4–2.0 kg kg−1 dry basis) on the gelatinization and digestibility of plantain flour (Dominico Harton genotype) were investigated. The degree of plantain starch gelatinization (α) was measured by DSC and modelled as a function of T and X1, using the Weibull model. Rapidly digestible starch (RDS) and resistant starch (RS) fractions were evaluated for different α values. An appropriate dimensionless variable was introduced to the analyzed and modelled RDS and RS as a function of α. Starch gelatinization begins at a temperature above 59.6 ± 0.5 °C and α is strongly dependent on T in non-limiting water conditions. The combined effects of T and X1 on the RDS and RS can be explained by α. We demonstrate that various heat treatments and water contents lead to the same α, with the same RDS and RS values.