A PERCOLATION ANALYSIS OF THE CONCENTRATION-DEPENDENCE OF THE GELATION OF WHEY-PROTEIN CONCENTRATES

Although the functionality of whey proteins is difficult to determine, it has proved possible in some circumstances to model protein gelation using conventional gel theory. Such gel theory is a subset of a more general technique, that of percolation theory, which has proved successful in other branches of science. This paper reports the application of percolation theory to protein gelation. The gelation of whey proteins has been studied using oscillatory rheometry, and gel time results interpreted in terms of a Monte Carlo simulation on a model lattice, using a variety of models for gelation. A second order kinetic model was found to describe the gelation data satisfactorily.