Affiliations: [a] Department of Polymer Science, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060, Japan | [b] Institute of Dairy Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060, Japan
Note: [] Accepted by: Editor E. Fukada
Abstract: Dynamic mechanical measurements were carried out to clarify the mechanism of the clotting process of casein micelle solution. It was found that the clotting process of casein micelle solution was formally expressed by a first order reaction. The enzyme concentration dependence of the latent time tL and the rate constant of gelation Kg were found to be tL∞[E]−1.1 and Kg∞[E]1.0, respectively. These results were interpreted on the basis of the theory of gelation. The results obtained here were found to agree with the theoretical conjectures. The casein micelle concentration dependence of the complex rigidity was also studied.
