Preparation and characterization of cassava starch foams: effect of foaming temperature

Abstract

This research was conducted to study the properties and characterization of cassava starch foam. The cassava starch foam were prepare by mixing the ingredient of desired formulation consists two variables such as the amount of blowing agent and foaming temperature. The compounding was done by using mechanical stirrer and the foaming processes occur in the oven. The physical testing includes the density of the cassava starch foam, cell morphology, water absorption and compressive stress. For cell morphology, the cell size and the cell wall thickness was observed by using stereo microscopy. Then, the images were analyzed by using Image J Software. Lastly, compression stress was determined by Instron machine. The results show that by increasing the amount of blowing agent, the density decrease gradually. It also was found that, the cell size become larger and the cell wall thickness decrease, this cause more water absorption and low compression stress. However, when foaming temperature at the highest, the cell size decrease which give low water absorption and high compressive stress.