Rheological, Thermal and Physicochemical Properties of Bioprocessed Flour From Cowpea, Sorghum and Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato

This study investigated the rheological, physicochemical, and thermal properties of fermented and germinated whole reddish-brown cowpea, white sorghum and orange-fleshed sweet potato. Germination substantially reduced the pasting and rheological attributes of flour suspensions compared to the fermentation process. This study observed notable increases in the hot paste, setback, and final viscosities after the fermentation of cowpea and sorghum, indicating an improvement in the ease of cooking and greater retrogradation tendency of starch molecules. Among the fermented flours, sorghum had the highest hot paste viscosity (848 mPa s) and final viscosity (1451 mPa s). The mechanical fingerprint revealed a viscoelastic solid character, with G′ > G″ over the frequency range of 0–10 rad/s for all samples. Temperature sweep data showed a sharp increase in G′ at about 80°C, corresponding to the onset of starch gelatinization. Shear-thinning behavior was observed, except in germinated and raw sorghum flours, where molecular rearrangement resulted in an initial viscosity rise at a low share rate (< 20 s⁻¹). Differential scanning calorimetric analysis revealed a marginal variation in the peak transition temperature of gelatinization (98°C–104°C for all flours except raw sorghum flour, 83.87°C). The fermented sweet potato flour indicated good flour particle flowability expressed as Carr's compressibility index (30.99) and the Hausner ratio (1.45); however, the available reducing sugars could have influenced its high percentage solubility (49.83%), thus impacting low pasting viscosities. The contrasting technological features suggest an avenue to intensify efforts in exploring composite bioprocessed flours for applications in novel foods.