Starch gelatinization and in vitro digestibility behaviour after heat treatment: Comparison between plantain paste and piece of pulp

•Starch degree of gelatinization is lower for whole pieces than for flour at 85 °C.•RDS is slightly lower for whole pieces than for flour.•For an α < 0.3, the in vitro RS content is higher for whole pieces than for flour paste.•Plantain pulp piece behaviour could be predicted based on flour paste gelatinization and in vitro digestibility.

Over the 65–100 °C range and at a water content of 1.6 kg kg−1 db, a comparison was conducted between plantain paste (dispersion made of flour and water) and pulp pieces after cooking to evaluate their respective degree of starch gelatinization (α) and in vitro digestibility. Below 76 °C and at 100 °C, the gelatinization behaviour of starch into pulp pieces and paste was similar, whereas at 85 °C a significant mean relative difference was observed in between. For α in the 0–1 range, pieces of plantain pulp exhibited a lower rapidly digestible starch fraction (30%) and a higher resistant starch fraction (33%) than the flour paste, suggesting some structural effects. Both Weibull and exponential models showed a good fit for α over temperature range and starch digestibility fractions over α. Although no explicit relationship was established between the intact pulp structure and grinded flour state of plantain, the evaluation of the degree of starch gelatinization and digestibility of a plantain flour paste, could be used to predict the gelatinization and digestibility behaviour of plantain starch in entire pieces of pulp.