The “natillas”, semisolid dairy dessert of wide consumption in Spain, is composed of
milk, starch, hydrocolloids, sugars, colorants and aromas. The particular characteristics
of some ingredients, like fat content of milk, type of starch, and/or type and
concentration of hydrocolloids, and their crossed interactions, will be reflected in
notable differences in their rheological and sensory properties. Little information is
available on the differences to be found in commercial samples of this type of dairy
desserts [1, 2]. The flow properties of this type of products, e.g. time dependence and
pseudoplasticity, are due to the resistance to shear of a biphasic structure defined by the
characteristics of the dispersed phase (starch granules) and by the viscosity of the
dispersing phase
MCYT project AGL 2000-1590