Food Bioprocess Technol (2014) 7:2451–2459
DOI 10.1007/s11947-014-1332-8
COMMUNICATION
Effect of Concentration and Temperature on the Rheological
Properties of Oat Milk
Aastha Deswal & Navneet Singh Deora &
Hari Niwas Mishra
Received: 18 November 2013 / Accepted: 8 May 2014 / Published online: 18 May 2014
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract The rheological behavior of oat milk (Avena sativa
L.) at different concentration (5, 10, 15, and 20 °Brix) was
studied in the temperature range of 10, 20, 30, and 40 °C using
a controlled stress rheometer. Power law model adequately de-
scribed the flow behavior of oat milk (0.881–0.987). The value
of flow behavior index (n) was less than unity (0.19–0.68) at all
temperature and concentration range indicating the shear-
thinning (pseudoplastic) nature of oat milk. Consistency index
(k) increased with soluble solids concentrations and decreased
with temperature. The Arrhenius equation adequately described
the effect of temperature on the viscosity. The activation energies
for flow of oat milk quantified using Arrhenius equation in-
creased with solid concentration and ranged from 7.43 to
303.64 kJ/mol. The effect of concentration on the viscosity
followed the exponential model. The empirical model obtained
from the study could well-describe the combined effect of tem-
perature and concentration within the range of the study. It was
concluded that temperature and concentration had a significant
effect on the rheology of the oat milk.
Keywords Rheology . Oat milk . Apparent viscosity .
Arrhenius equation . Power law . Activation energy
Introduction
In recent years, health concerns and changes in consumer’s
inclination towards functional foods have led to an extensive
research on developing healthy foods. Among the healthy
food category, there has been an increased demand from
consumers for functional drinks with high acceptance and
A. Deswal (*) : N. S. Deora : H. N. Mishra
Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of
Technology, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India
e-mail: deswalad@gmail.com
functionality. Oats are one of the promising raw materials
for developing health beverage. Oat (Avena sativa L.) and
oat products are excellent sources of soluble dietary fiber (β-
glucan) (Tiwari and Cummins 2012), significant amount of
phytochemicals (Peterson 2001; Panfili et al. 2003), rich in
protein, lipids, minerals, and vitamins (Singh et al. 2011).
Various literature has reported that consumption of oat milk
has been shown to decrease plasma cholesterol and LDL
cholesterol concentrations in healthy individuals (Önning
et al. 1998; Bekers et al. 2001). It has also been proved
scientifically that cholesterol-lowering property of oats is
due to the presence of soluble dietary fiber, β-glucan
(Braaten et al. 1994; Wood 2004). In 1997, the Food and
Drug Administration allowed the health claim that a diet high
in soluble fiber from whole oats (oat bran, oat meal, oat flour)
and low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of
cardiovascular diseases (US-FDA 1997; US-FDA 1998).
During recent years, there has been an increased demand from
consumers for nondairy milk substitutes (Mårtensson et al. 2000;
Prado et al. 2008; Angioloni and Collar 2013). Additionally, long
known for its benefits, oats is becoming popular as part of a
healthy diet, and new oat products emerge at the functional food
market (Angelov et al. 2006). Furthermore, nondairy oat milk
beverage will also meet the requirement of lactose-intolerant
individuals which is particularly a major drawback related to
consumption of dairy beverage (Heenan et al. 2004; Gupta et al.
2010). Also, nondairy-based product will have worldwide im-
portance due to the ongoing trend in the vegetarianism and high
prevalence of lactose intolerance in many populations around the
world (Granato et al. 2010)
In our recent publication, we reported the optimized pro-
cess conditions for the development of nondairy-based oat
milk by enzymatic process (Deswal et al. 2013). However,
the rheological characteristics of oat milk which plays a par-
amount role in its overall acceptance were not discussed. The
rheological data would be necessary for computation in
2452
processes involving fluid flow (e.g. pump sizing, extraction,
filtration, extrusion, purification) and play a crucial role in the
analyses of flow conditions in food processes such as pasteur-
ization, evaporation, drying, and aseptic processing (Barbosa-
Canovas et al. 1996; Sopade and Kiaka 2001; Rao 2007b).
Consumer acceptance of product like oat milk is highly de-
pendent on its consistency which requires information about
viscosity and flow behavior of the product (Deswal et al.
2013). Additionally, viscosity, a rheological property, is also
considered as an important physical characteristic related to
the quality of liquid food products (Saravacos 1970).
Rheology plays an important role for food scientists in food
product development, quality control, sensory quality, design,
and evaluation of the process equipment (Deboni et al. 2013).
Knowledge on the rheology of fluid food is a very valuable tool
in the processing and quality control of the fluid foods. Its
significance in product development in the food industry has
been extensively discussed in literature (Steffe 1996; Fryer et al.
1997; Sopade and Kiaka 2001). Measurements of rheological
parameters have been recognized as necessary to provide funda-
mental insights on the structural organization of food and play a
significant role in fluid flow and heat transfer. The viscosity of
food products cannot be predicted theoretically due to compli-
cated physical and chemical structure. Variations in the viscosity
of fluid food affect the energy usage in a processing plant.
Viscosity can become an important factor during the concentra-
tion of fluid food like oat milk, especially in the production of
high density concentrates, due to the inefficiency of the operation
when the product becomes highly viscous. Further, optimum
consistency for a good mouthfeel is a desired quality criterion
in fluid milk. Because of the fact that fluid foods are subjected to
different temperature and concentrations during processing, stor-
age, transport, marketing, and consumption, the rheological be-
havior is important to understand the functional relationship of
viscosity with temperature and concentration (Rao 2007b).
Knowledge regarding these changes are important with respect
to quality of fluid food as well as it is required for different
engineering applications (Rao 1977). The effect of temperature
on the apparent viscosity at a specified shear rate is generally
expressed by an Arrhenius-type model as shown in Eq. 1 (Rao
2007b; Speers and Tung 1986)
 
Ea
k ¼ A0 exp ð1Þ
RT
Where,
A0 Constant
Ea Activation Energy of flow (kJ/mol)
R Universal gas constant (8.314 J/molk)
T Absolute temperature (K)
Although a great number of liquid, including some food
material, exhibit Newtonian behavior, most of the food
Food Bioprocess Technol (2014) 7:2451–2459
products are shown to behave as non-Newtonian fluids
(Barbosa-Canovas et al. 1996; Rao 2007b). Thus, the relation-
ship between shear stress and shear rate is not linear. Viscosity
of non-Newtonian fluid changes with changing rate of shear
and hence should be characterized by more than one param-
eter. The flow behavior can generally be represented by the
following power law model as shown in Eqs. 3 and 4
(Ditchfield et al. 2004; Viamajala et al. 2009; Juszczak et al.
2010).
:n
τ ¼ ky ð2Þ
or
τ :
ηa ¼ ¼ kyn−1 ð3Þ
y:
where, (k), the consistency coefficient (Pa sn), is the shear stress at
1.0 s−1; exponent (n), the flow behavior index, is the dimension-
less number that reflects the closeness to Newtonian flow; ηa is
the apparent viscosity (in Pa s); γ is the shear rate (in s−1), and τ is
the shear stress. The parameter k is also referred to as consistency
index. Consistency index can be defined as the value of
viscosity (or stress) at a shear rate of 1.0 s−1. For the
special case of a Newtonian fluid (n=1), the consistency
index K is identically equal to the viscosity of the fluid.
When the value is of n<1, the fluid is shear thinning
and when n>1, the fluid is shear thickening in nature
(Rao 2007b). As the relationship of shear stress and
shear rate data can be described by two parameter (k,
n), the power law model has been extensively used to
characterize the fluid food. The power law parameters,
(k) and (n) are calculated from the data to compare the
effect of various processing conditions on the rheologi-
cal properties of foods. The viscosity determined by
means of experimentation could be utilized in calculat-
ing the parameters of momentum and energy, as well as
for the quality control of oat milk during large-scale
processing.
To the knowledge of the authors, the number of studies on the
effect of soluble solids concentration and temperature on the
rheological properties of oat milk are scarce. The objective of
this work was thus to study the influence of temperature and
soluble solids on rheological parameters of oat milk.
Materials and Methods
Analytical Methods
The pH was measured using a Systronics μ-pH System-361
according to the standard method (AOAC 1980).
Food Bioprocess Technol (2014) 7:2451–2459 2453

Soluble Solid Content Statistical Analysis

Total soluble solid (TSS) of the samples were deter-
mined by an Erma hand refractometer (reading at 20 °C)
before each viscosity measurement and was expressed as °
Brix.
Preparation of Oat Milk
Preparation of oat milk is based on an enzymatic process which
involves simultaneous gelatinization and liquefaction of rolled
oats at 70–75 °C, through an enzymatic reaction. The protocol
followed for the preparation of oat milk is shown in Fig. 1
(Deswal et al. 2013). Soluble solids concentration of oat milk
was 20 °Brix, and pH value was 6.7. Samples with lower soluble
Nonlinear regression analysis was used to estimate the model
coefficients and statistical parameters using Statistica package
(Version 5, StatSoft Inc., Tulsa, USA). The goodness of fit of
each model was ascertained considering coefficient of determi-
nation (R2) and standard error. The significance level at p<0.05
was used throughout the study. The performance of derived
model was evaluated using statistical parameters such as the root
mean square error (RMSE) in addition to R2. RMSE allow for
the detection of the differences between experimental data and
the model estimates which can be estimated as follows (Toğrul
and Arslan 2004):

1 XN  2  12
RMSE ¼ ηaexp;i − ηa pre;i ð4Þ
N t¼1

solids contents (5, 10, and 15 °Brix) were used in the present
study by appropriate dilution with deionized water and Where, ηaexp;i is the experimental apparent viscosity, ηa pre;i
homogenized. is the predicted apparent viscosity, N is the number of data
points.

Rheological Measurements

A Bohlin Gemini Rheometer (Malvern Instruments Limited, Results and Discussion

UK) was used to perform the rheological measurements. Each
experiment had a test temperature control using peltier system
with a tolerance of ±0.1 °C. Viscosity of different samples was
measured using plate and cone configuration (Cone diameter=
20 mm; Cone angle=2°) in the shear rate range of 0.1 to 100 s−1.
A thin layer of low-density silicone oil was used around the plate
to prevent evaporation. The samples were adequately mixed
using a magnetic stirrer to achieve uniform consistency before
loading into the rheometer. The sample was brought into the
lower plate using a spatula and filled up the gap by lowering the
upper cone down to the designated gap. Rheological measure-
ment was subsequently started after 2–4 min to allow for tem-
perature equilibrium. All the measurements were carried out in
triplicate and average is reported. A fresh sample was used in
each measurement.
Flow Behavior of Oat Milk
Figure 2 depicts the apparent viscosity-shear rate relationship
of experimental data obtained for oat milk with TSS content
(20 °Brix) at different temperatures (10, 20, 30, and 40 °C).
Similar flow curves were also obtained for other samples (5,
10, and 15 °Brix) and exhibited non-Newtonian pseudoplastic
behavior. It is evident from Fig. 2 that the apparent viscosity at
any given shear rate decreases by increasing the temperature.
The results showed that the curves of apparent viscosity at all
the heating temperatures (10, 20, 30, and 40ºC) are different.
These results indicate that heat treatment has a significant
effect on the viscosity of oat milk as indicated by shift in flow
curves as the temperature increases. ANOVA result shows that

Fig. 1 Flow chart for the α- Amylase

preparation of oat Milk (Deswal (77.78mg/kg of Rolled oats)
et al. 2013)
Enzymatic
Rolled Oats Hydrolysis
(1kg) 3.70kg Oat
Mixing Oat slurry Filtration
Milk
(2.85kg)

Water (2.70kg)
Filter Cake
(0.86kg)
2454 Food Bioprocess Technol (2014) 7:2451–2459

Table 1 Variation in flow behavior index (n) and consistency coefficient

0.90 (k) of oat milk with temperature and concentration based on Power law
model
0.75
na ka (Pa sn) η* 10−3 a R2
Apparent Viscosity (mPa.s)

T (°C) Brix
0.60
(Pa s)

10 5 0.303±0.003 0.110±0.07 3.9±0.03 0.881

0.45
10°C 10 0.682±0.001 0.119±0.19 8.8±0.02 0.923
20°C
0.30 30°C 15 0.323±0.005 0.157±0.14 19.6±0.12 0.932
40°C
20 0.421±0.003 1.549±0.43 105.5±0.21 0.953
0.15 20 5 0.199±0.002 0.107±0.09 3.4±0.07 0.965
10 0.508±0.004 0.110±04 7.1±0.08 0.892
0.00 15 0.238±0.005 0.149±0.21 15.9±0.17 0.934
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Shear rate (1/s) 20 0.381±0.002 1.150±0.32 73.7±0.34 0.943
Fig. 2 Apparent viscosity-shear rate relationship for the oat milk (20 ° 30 5 0.355±0.002 0.099±0.12 3.1±0.03 0.947
Brix) at different temperatures: (black squares) 10 °C; (black circles) 10 0.255±0.004 0.106±0.24 6.3±0.10 0.987
20 °C; (black up-pointing triangle) 30 °C; (black down-pointing triangle) 15 0.269±0.001 0.140±0.19 14.5±0.14 0.975
40 °C
20 0.439±0.002 1.057±0.41 37.1±0.17 0.964
40 5 0.323±0.003 0.087±0.09 2.9±0.06 0.961
10 0.235±0.001 0.090±0.11 5.7±0.05 0.943
there is a significant difference in value of apparent viscosity
15 0.243±0.004 0.134±0.23 12.6±0.0 0.954
at different temperatures for entire range of shear rate under
20 0.413±0.005 0.998±0.51 35.4±0.11 0.897
study (1 % level of significance). The increase in temperature
was found to exhibit a negative effect on apparent viscosity of n=Flow behavior Index; k=Consistency index; η=Apparent viscosity;
oat milk at all concentrations. The apparent viscosity of oat R2 =Coefficient of determination
milk with TSS value of 20 °Brix decreased from 1.549 to a
Mean±standard deviation (n=3)
0.998 Pa sn as the temperature increased from 10 to 40 °C.
Similar results were obtained for oat milk samples with TSS extensively to describe the flow properties of liquids in theo-
value of 5, 10, and 15 °Brix. Further, to demonstrate the retical analysis as well as in practical engineering applications
relationship between temperature, TSS, and apparent viscosity
of oat milk, different empirical models have been fitted which
are discussed later. Table 2 Variation in apparent viscosity (Pa s) of oat milk with shear rate
at 20 °C
The role of apparent viscosity in the sensory perception of the
food is also important from consumer perspective (Szczesniak Shear rate Apparent viscosity (Pa s)
1979). Perceived viscosity may be the response to different (1/s)
20 °Brix 15 °Brix 10 °Brix 5 °Brix
physical stimuli as a function of the flow characteristics of a
particular food under study (Yanes et al. 2002; Shama and 1 1.375±0.04 0.223±0.01 0.204±0.010 0.185±0.012
Sherman 1973; Christensen 1987). The sensory thickness, or 4 0.504±0.01 0.067±0.01 0.061±0.003 0.045±0.011
oral viscosity, of shear-thinning fluids depends on the shear stress 7 0.320±0.03 0.043±0.001 0.037±0.006 0.030±0.009
applied to the fluid in mouth. It has been found that a shear stress 11 0.247±0.07 0.038±0.004 0.025±0.02 0.023±0.010
developed in mouth at a constant shear rate of 50 s−1 is generally 14 0.206±0.06 0.032±0.001 0.017±0.005 0.009±0.004
perceived as the stimulus associated with the oral evaluation of 20 0.166±0.08 0.030±0.012 0.014±0.012 0.005±0.005
viscosity (Wood 1968). As seen from Table 1, change in value of
25 0.147±0.03 0.025±0.008 0.013±0.004 0.007±0.002
temperature and TSS significantly affects the value of apparent
30 0.131±0.01 0.024±0.003 0.012±0.005 0.005±0.007
viscosity which may affect the perceived thickness of oat milk
40 0.118±0.001 0.024±0.002 0.011±0.003 0.004±0.005
beverages by sensory panelists. For oat milk samples at 20 °C
50 0.108±0.02 0.019±0.013 0.010±0.006 0.007±0.002
(Table 2), value of apparent viscosity decreased from 0.108 to
60 0.097±0.004 0.019±0.004 0.009±0.001 0.005±0.008
0.007 Pa sn as the TSS value decreased from 20 to 5°Brix at
70 0.088±0.002 0.018±0.002 0.008±0.007 0.004±0.001
shear rate value of 50 s−1. Change in perception of thickness of
80 0.085±0.005 0.017±0.004 0.008±0.001 0.004±0.001
liquid foods by sensory panelists with change in flow properties
90 0.080±0.001 0.016±0.006 0.008±0.001 0.004±0.0001
has been reported in past also (Kappes et al. 2007; Bengtsson
100 0.074±0.013 0.016±0.005 0.007±0.002 0.003±0.0001
et al. 2011; Gallardo-Escamilla et al. 2007).
The power law model (Eq. 1) is perhaps the most widely Data are presented as mean±standard deviation (n=3). η=Apparent
employed model for non-Newtonian liquids and is used viscosity
Food Bioprocess Technol (2014) 7:2451–2459 2455

(Rao et al. 1984; Barnes et al. 1989; Marcotte et al. 2001). Linear 0.14

regression analysis was performed on the data to find k, n, and

0.12
correlation coefficient R2; the results of which are summarized in

Apparent viscosity (mPa.s)

Table 1. The fitting of the experimental data for the oat milk to 0.10
the power law model (Steffe 1996) was found to have good fit
with high correlation coefficient (R2 =0.881 to 0.987). Data over 0.08
o
5 Brix
the temperature range 10–40ºC showed that the flow behavior 0.06
o
10 Brix
index was affected by both TSS and temperature. Values of n o
15 Brix
o
ranged from 0.19 to 0.68 under different conditions of tempera- 0.04 20 Brix

ture and soluble solids, demonstrating a shear-thinning

(pseudoplastic) behavior. Oat milk exhibited a pseudoplastic
behavior because the values of flow behavior index (n), a mea-
sure of the departure from Newtonian flow, were less than 1
(Chhinnan et al. 1985; Barbosa-Cánovas et al. 1996)
Influence of temperature and TSS on power law parameters
is presented in Table 1. Consistency coefficient (k) is an
indicator of the viscous nature of the system (Simuang et al.
2004; Deswal et al. 2013) which was found to vary in the
range of 0.087–1.549 Pa sn. For all the samples in this exper-
iment, consistency index (k) decreased with the increase in
temperature. This signifies the reduction of the apparent vis-
cosity (ηa) with the increase in temperature.
The shear-thinning (pseudoplastic) behavior of oat milk
can be attributed to colloidal nature of oat milk. When shear
force is applied, the particles may rearrange themselves into
parallel direction with shear force and big particles may break
into small particles by shear force, thereby decreasing the
viscosity (Charm and Stanley 1962). Additionally, the de-
crease in apparent viscosity with increasing shear rate can be
explained by the structural breakdown of the oat milk com-
ponents due to the hydrodynamic forces generated and the
increased alignment of the constituent molecules (e.g. fat,
starch, protein) (Rao 2007b).
Apparent viscosity depends upon shear rate, and its variation
with shear rate is shown in Table 2 for all the samples under study
at 20 °C temperature. It is observed that for the range of concen-
tration under study with increased shear rates, the apparent
viscosity decreased. It is also observed that apparent viscosity
decreases at a faster rate for higher concentration than at low
concentration (Pankaj et al. 2002) which suggested the
pseudoplastic or shear-thinning nature of oat milk.
Effect of Total Soluble Solids Concentration on Rheology
of Oat Milk
Apparent viscosity-shear rate relationship for the oat milk of
different TSS concentration at 40 °C is shown in Fig. 3.
Similar flow behavior was observed at different temperatures
under study. The dependence of rheological parameter (con-
sistency index) of oat milk on TSS is shown in Fig. 4. The
variation of viscosity with soluble solid contents can be de-
scribed by several different models (Ibarz et al. 1994; Vitali
and Rao 1984). These are generally power law type and
0.02
0.00
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Shear rate (1/s)
Fig. 3 Apparent Viscosity-Shear rate relationship for the oat milk con-
taining 40 °C at different °Brix: (black squares) 5 °Brix; (black circles) 10
°Brix; (black up-pointing triangle) 15 °Brix; (black down-pointing
triangle) 20 Brix
exponential type models as shown in Eqs. 5 and 6 (Kaya
and Belibaglı 2002)
η ¼ η1 C a1 ð5Þ
η ¼ η2 exp a2 C ð6Þ
Where η1, η2, a1, and a2 are constants and C is the concen-
tration in Brix
In order to calculate the different parameters of these equa-
tions, the values of apparent viscosity (at 100 s−1) rate were
fitted to their linear forms of Eqs. 5 and 6 by the least-squares
method. Table 3 represents the values of the parameters of the
power law and exponential relationships. Statistical analysis
indicates that the exponential model seems to describe better
the effect of the soluble solids on the viscosity of diluted
samples with value of coefficient of determination close to
1. The exponential model with the highest value of correlation
coefficient was the best model to predict concentration depen-
dency of apparent viscosity of oat milk. A strong effect of TSS
concentration on the apparent viscosity of oat milk showed
145, 504, and 1388 % increase in viscosity as the TSS in-
creased from 5 to 10, 15, and 20 °Brix, respectively.
Relationship of consistency index (k) with temperature for
oat milk at different °Brix can be seen from Fig. 4. It can be
seen that the magnitude of consistency index k increased with
increase in soluble solids at all temperatures under study. This
phenomena of viscosity increase with TSS content is consis-
tent with many other studies, e.g., in coconut milk by
(Simuang et al. 2004; Juszczak et al. 2010).
Effect of Concentration of Oat Milk on Activation Energy
The variation of activation energy with oat milk con-
centration was modeled by using both exponential and
2456 Food Bioprocess Technol (2014) 7:2451–2459

0
Fig. 4 Consistency index (K)- 0.125 5 Brix 0.160 1.6
0
temperature relationship for oat 10 Brix
0.110 0
15 Brix
milk at different °Brix 0.120 0
20 Brix 1.5
0.155

0.115 0.105
1.4

Consistency Index (Pa.s )

Consistency Index (Pa.s )

n

n
0.150
0.110
0.100 1.3
0.105 0.145
1.2
0.095
0.100
0.140
1.1
0.095
0.090

0.135 1.0
0.090
0.085
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
o
Temperature( C)

power functions as shown in Eqs. 7 and 8 (Arslan et al.
2005)
E a ¼ A1 expðB1 C Þ
E a ¼ A2 C B2
Where, A1, A2, B1, and B2, are the proportionality constants.
The linearized forms of these two equations were used to
determine the model constants. Table 4 represents the influ-
ence of the soluble solids on the activation energy of flow. It
can be seen from Table 4 that exponential function was found
to be a better fit for the relationship as compared to the power
function as indicated by higher value of coefficient of deter-
mination (R2 =0.89) for exponential model.
Effect of Temperature on the Rheology of Oat Milk
The variation in viscosity with temperature on the flow be-
havior of fluid foods can be described by the Arrhenius
relationship-type exponential equation (Saravacos 1970;
Table 3 Concentration dependency of apparent viscosity (100 s−1) of oat
milk at different temperatures
Vitali and Rao 1984; Juszczak et al. 2010; Barbana and El-
Omri 2012). Due to the dependence of the apparent viscosity
of oat milk on temperature, a linear relationship between log
ð7Þ
viscosity and the reciprocal of absolute temperature can be
obtained (Rao 2007a). Thus, the Arrhenius equation can be
ð8Þ applied to understand the relationship between viscosity and
temperature (Eq. 9)
 
Ea
ηa ¼ η∞ exp ð9Þ
RT
where ηa is the apparent viscosity at a specific shear rate, η∞ is
viscosity at infinite shear rate, Ea is the activation energy of
flow (kJ/mol), R is the gas constant (kJ/molK), and T is
absolute temperature (K). The Arrhenius equation has been
successfully used to predict temperature dependence of coco-
nut milk (Simuang et al. 2004) as well as rice milk (Faccin
et al. 2009).
The estimated values of η∞ and Ea for each sample are
shown in Table 5. Table 5 shows temperature dependency of
apparent viscosity (at 100 s−1) for different concentration of
oat milk based on Arrhenius equation. It can be seen from the
table that the activation energy of the oat milk increased with
an increase in the soluble solid concentration. It increased

T (°C) η=η1(Ca1) η=η2exp(a2C)

Table 4 Influence of the concentration on the activation energy of flow
η1 (Pas) a1 a R2 η2 (Pas) a2 a R2 (E)

10 6.25×10−9 5.55±0.82 0.987 0.19× 10−3 0.32±0.03 0.993 Model A B R2

20 2.37× 10−8 4.98±0.77 0.983 0.25× 10−3 0.28±0.03 0.992
Power Law 0.34±0.005 2.24±0.0.02 0.858
30 6.44× 10−6 2.89±0.40 0.979 0.99× 10−3 0.18±0.01 0.999 E a ¼ A2 C B12
40 2.79× 10−6 3.15±0.50 0.973 0.75× 10−3 0.19±0.01 0.996 Exponential 13.24±0.003 1.55±0.07 0.889
Ea =A1exp(B1C)
η = Apparent viscosity; a 1 , a 2 = Constants; R = Coefficient of 2

determination Ea =Activation energy of flow; A, B=Consistency Index; R2 =Coefficient

a
Mean±standard deviation (n=3) of determination
Food Bioprocess Technol (2014) 7:2451–2459 2457

Table 5 Temperature dependency of apparent viscosity (100 s−1) for However, as explained earlier, the effect of temperature
different concentration of oat milk based on Arrhenius-type equation
is different on different samples. Both analysis on n and
Conc. Ea a (kJ/mol) ηa (Pa s) R2 K values are important in processing liquid foods at
commercial level.
5 °Brix 07.43±0.66 1.64×10−4 0.97537
10 °Brix 107.66±1.19 2.19×10−4 0.96387
Combined Effect of Temperature and Total Soluble Solids
15 °Brix 109.35±1.07 2.02×10−5 0.96936
on Rheology of Oat Milk
20 °Brix 303.64±4.32 2.66×10−7 0.94764

Ea =Activation energy of flow; η=Apparent viscosity; R2 =Coefficient of For practical engineering applications, it is meaningful to
determination obtain a single expression exemplifying the combined effect
a
Mean±Standard deviation (n=3) of concentration and temperature on apparent viscosity of oat
milk at a particular shear rate (Ibarz et al. 1994; Kaya and
Belibaglı 2002). The apparent viscosity as discussed in the
from 7.43 to 303.64 kJ/mol as the soluble solid content previous discussion is functionally related to both concentra-
increased from 5 to 20.0°Brix, respectively (i.e., temperature tion and temperature. Based on the result obtained in previous
had a greater effect on the viscosity of the samples with higher discussion, following models have been proposed to find the
concentrations). The activation energy, which measures the combined effect of concentration and temperature on apparent
sensitivity of the oat milk viscosity to temperature, increased viscosity as shown in the Eqs. 10 and 11.
with increasing concentration, whereas the proportionality  
constant, exhibited a decline (Arslan et al. 2005). Low values Ea
η ¼ η3 exp D1 C þ ð10Þ
of activation energy at the lower concentration (5 °Brix) imply RT
that the oat milk can maintain its viscosity at higher temper-
 
atures (Hosseini-Parvar et al. 2010). Ea
The Arrhenius model explained the dependency of appar- η ¼ η4 C D2 exp ð11Þ
RT
ent viscosity of oat milk on the temperature. This phenomena
of viscosity increase with TSS content and decrease in viscos- where, η3 η4, D1, D2 are the constant of the model
ity with temperature (for sample 1) is consistent with many Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted on the
other studies, e.g., in coconut milk by Simuang et al. (2004) linearized forms of the equations. The calculated values of
and Juszczak et al. (2010). Thus, the Arrhenius equation is a parameters of two models are shown in Table 6. It can be seen
useful means for predicting (under the conditions of experi- that both the models presents similar value of activation
mentation) the viscosity of the apparent viscosity of oat sam- energy. Both models adequately described the relationship.
ples examined in this study. Yet Eq. (10) provided a better goodness of fit as indicated by
Relationship between the consistency coefficient (k) and value of coefficient of determination in Table 6 and can be
the temperature can be seen from Fig. 4. The value of k recommended to be used as a single model. Therefore, a single
considerably decreased value for sample at 20 °Brix as com- equation has been proposed to describe the viscosity of oat
pared to other sample used in the study. The reason for this milk as shown in the Eq. 12.
behavior may be attributed to the fact that number of particles  
3525:44
is less in other samples as compared to oat milk sample with η ¼ 1:56  10−9 exp 0:2689C þ ð12Þ
20° Brix. Generally, as temperature increases, the average T
speed of the molecules in a liquid increases and the amount This will give more generalized model and can be
of time they spend in contact with their nearest neighbors applied only for the ranges of temperature and concentra-
decreases, thereby decreasing the average intermolecular tion studied (R2 =0.976). The predicted apparent viscosities
forces and hence viscosity (Alpaslan and Hayta 2002). Since
the particle-particle interaction is already low, temperature has
not much effect on the viscosity of samples with low TSS Table 6 Combined effect of concentration and temperature on viscosity
(Toğrul and Arslan 2004; Moelants et al. 2013). Additionally, Model Eq. No i ηi j Di E (kJ/mol) R2
as temperature increases, thermal energy of the molecules
increases and molecular distances develop due to reduction 1 10 3 1.56×10−9 1 0.27±0.0231 29.30±2.41 0.976
of intermolecular forces, hence viscosity of the fluid decreases 2 11 4 1.83×10−13 2 4.87±0.1021 29.37±2.74 0.969
(Hassan and Hobani 1998; Toğrul and Arslan 2004).
Ea =Activation energy of flow; η=Apparent viscosity; Di =Constant; R2 =
The calculated apparent viscosity of oat milk at 100 s−1 as Coefficient of determination
presented in Table 2 showed an agreeing trend to the consis-   E 
tency coefficient with respect to the effect of concentration. Eq: 10 : η ¼ η3 exp D1 C þ RT Ea
; Eq: 11 : η ¼ η4 C D2 exp RT a
2458 Food Bioprocess Technol (2014) 7:2451–2459

Table 7 Apparent viscosity (Pa s) predicted from Eq. (12) on apparent viscosity of oat milk. A single equation was
T (°C) °Brix −3
Apparent viscosity (Pa s) * 10 RMSE formulated to show the combined effect of soluble solids
and temperature and can be a useful tool in process design
Actuala Predicted and control as well as quality control and sensory evaluation
of the product. A study of the flow properties of oat milk at
10 5 3.1±0.15 1.5 0.91
higher temperature is recommended for the future studies.
10 7.9±0.22 5.8 1.18
15 21.2±1.45 22.5 0.75
Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge the De-
20 94±2.19 88.0 3.46 partment of Biotechnology, Government of India, for financial support.
20 5 2.3±0.06 1.1 0.75
10 6.4±0.13 3.83 1.48
15 15.1±1.22 14.7 0.22
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