Quantifying Thixotropy of Béchamel Sauce Under Constant Shear Stress by Phenomenological and Empirical Models

Experimental results for Béchamel sauce are used to prove the validity of two rheological models for the study of thixotropic behaviour. The rheological‐kinetic parameters are: structural parameter (Λ), rate of structural breakdown (kb2) and Herschel‐Bulkley constants at zero and 40 min of shear stress i.e. yield stress (τλ), consistency index (K), flow index (n). The empirical parameters, obtained by multiple logarithmic regression, are a time consistency index (K'), a time flow index (n') and a thixotropic index (p'). For the two models the correlation coefficient were greater than 0.9. Parameters of both models suggest the milk protein‐wheat starch interactions are mainly responsible for Béchamel consistency. The breakdown of this interaction can explain the thixotropy.