RHEOLOGICAL BEHAVIOUR OF BUTTER AT SMALL DEFORMATIONS

Abstract

Thirteen continuously churned commercial butter samples were evaluated for rheological properties at small deformations. The methods performed included dynamic experiments in shear and compression, stress relaxation in shear and static compression at 5–20C each. Linear viscoelastic behaviour was observed up to a critical strain of 0.001. The structure breakdown due to shear strains between 0.001 and 0.01 was found to be fully recoverable. No qualitative differences in the rheological behaviour were observed between the samples. Temperature‐induced variations were mainly ascribed to changes in the solid fat content. Correlations between selected rheological measures in the linear viscoelastic region (i.e., complex modulus G* [Pa], relaxation modulus G(t) |_t≃ 0[Pa], and modulus of deformability M_D[Pa]) were found to be causal and only slightly affected by the solid fat content.