Structure-composition relationships of the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar close to jamming transition

The Balsamic Family

“…High-density must is a shortcut to achieve TBV with high specific gravity, but not necessarily high viscosity. The latter practice also has the drawback of giving rise to vinegars with problems of physical stability (Falcone 2010;Falcone et al 2011). …”

Structure–composition relationships of the traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena close to jamming transition (part II): Threshold control parameters

“…A complex and opposite role of polymeric melanoidins could be hypothesized in vinegar jamming. While the self-assembling capacity of the vinegar melanoidins to form colloids and aggregates was recently hypothesized due the presence of Fe and Mg and to the low pH (Falcone et al, 2011), an indirect and opposite role of such biopolymers cannot be excluded. As proved for other colloidal and dispersed systems, short-ranged Van der Waals attraction could be responsible for the colloid formation according to the DLVO model (Russel, Saville, & Schowalter, 1989) but as the polymer concentration in the continuous phase increases, a critical concentration is reached above which the free polymers is excluded from interparticle space due to osmotic depletion resulting in attractive forces among particles and eventually in the flocculation (Tadros, 1982a, b).…”

“…The two reducing sugars are present in a huge amount in TBVM, i.e. up to 40-60% in weigh, and they undergo conversion reactions activated by temperature during the cooking of the grape must (Falcone, Boselli, & Frega, 2011). The polymerization reactions take place throughout the entire period of aging with polydispersity, estimated as ratio between high-to-low average sizes, varying asymptotically toward either upper or lower limits .…”

“…Data from High-Resolution Light Microscopy and X-ray Diffractometry proved that crystallization was caused by the ordered rearrangements of the α-D-glucose monohydrate molecules. Coupling Environmental Scanning Electronic Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy and Size-Exclusion Chromatography, Falcone et al (2011) tried to link for the first time the elemental composition to the jammed structure of TBVM. They evidenced amorphous flocs of unidentified substances collapsing in a viscoelastic network close to jamming transition; values of C/O compatible with the presence of natural phenolics (such as grape condensed tannins) as well as of polymeric furfuryl compounds such as nitrogen-free melanoidins, and a polydispersity in the shear-thinning samples lower than in the Newtonian ones.…”

Rheological properties of traditional balsamic vinegar: New insights and markers for objective and perceived quality

“…From a physical perspective, TBV has been recognized as a soft material showing different flow behaviours spanning from Newtonian to shear thinning, shear thickening and viscoelastic regimes under controlled shearing conditions. Using different and complementary techniques, the major contribution of the polymeric melanoidins to local jamming phenomena forming metastable structures has been recently recognized throughout the entire aging process Falcone, 2010;Falcone, Boselli, & Frega, 2011. "Jamming" is a term widely used in the science of food structure for soft materials (Mezzenga, Schurtenberger, Burbidge, & Michel, 2005;Ubbink, Burbidge, & Mezzenga, 2008) in order to describe how their constituents may result metastable structures that reach a minimum free energy as well as how some external parameters including density, temperature, and mechanical stress can influence such out-of-equilibrium structures by enhancing, reducing or eliminating the ability to flow (Liu & Nagel, 1998;Cates, Wittmer, Bouchaud, & Claudin, 1998;Trappe, Prasad, Cipelletti, Segre, & Weitz, 2001;Liu & Nagel, 2001).…”