CK Christina Opaluwa

M.Sc. Christina Opaluwa (geb. Kendler)

  • Postanschrift: Kaiserstr. 12
    Liefer- und Besucheranschrift: Gotthard-Franz-Straße 3
    Geb. 50.31, 4. OG
    D-76131 Karlsruhe

About myself

I discovered my interest in food process engineering and especially in extrusion during my studies of "Food Technology and Biotechnology" at the Technical University of Munich. During my bachelor thesis I gained first insights into the extrusion of whey proteins with the aim to produce microparticulates as fat substitutes. Also in my master thesis at the Fraunhofer Institute IVV in Freising I have been working on the field of extrusion. The focus was on the substitution of fish meal in fish feed by plant proteins.
January 2019, I started my doctoral studies as part of my work as a research assistant in the research group “Extrusion of biopolymeric materials”

Research focus

Extrusion is a continuous high-temperature short-time process in which a variety of product components can be mixed, sheared and heated by simultaneous thermal and mechanical stress. The main purpose of the extrusion of biopolymers, such as starch, dietary fibres or proteins, is the texturisation and the functionalisation of the raw materials in order to produce products with novel structures.  
An interesting field of application is the extrusion of plant proteins at high moisture contents with an attached cooling die in order to produce meat substitutes. The proteins form fibrous, anisotropic structures which resemble the product properties of meat in appearance, colour and texture. However, meat substitutes produced in this method often do not adequately resemble the sensorical properties of meat, especially in terms of mouthfeel, such as juiciness. Since the characteristic mouthfeel of meat is produced by the composition of muscle fibres and intramuscular fat, it can be assumed that the addition of oil can significantly improve the sensorical properties of meat substitutes.
The main focus of my research is therefore to investigate the influence of oil on the extrusion process, the material properties such as rheological properties, molecular structure changes and product properties.

Methods

The extrusion trials are performed on a co-rotating twin-screw extruder. It is known that the rheological properties in the extruder and in the cooling die strongly influence the final product properties. Therefore, rheological data can be measured directly in the extrusion process using an inline rheometer. In addition, a "CCR" closed cavity rheometer is used at our institute to perform rheological measurements under defined, extrusion-like conditions. In the CCR, changes in the rheological properties due to thermomechanical treatment are directly indicated and thus conclusions can be drawn about the material properties in the extrusion process.

 

Publications


2023
Extrusion von Fleischersatzprodukten: Einfluss von Öl auf die rheologischen Eigenschaften von Pflanzenproteinen
Opaluwa, C.
2023, March 15. Jahrestagung der DECHEMA-Fachgruppen Hochdruckverfahrenstechnik und Lebensmittelverfahrenstechnik (2023), Bochum, Germany, March 13–15, 2023
2022
Extrusion von pflanzlich basierten Fleischersatzprodukten: Einfluss der Ölzugabe auf die Prozessgrößen und Materialeigenschaften
Opaluwa, C.; Karbstein, H. P.; Emin, M. A.
2022, March 10. Jahrestreffen der ProcessNet-Fachgruppen Lebensmittelverfahrenstechnik und Trocknungstechnik (2022), Frankfurt am Main, Germany, March 10–11, 2022
Vegetable oil in meat analogues based on plant proteins: the role of rheological properties in the formation of anisotropic product structures
Opaluwa, C.; Karbstein, H.; Emin, M. A.
2022. 21st IUFoST World Congress of Food Science and Technology (2022), Singapore, Singapore, October 31–November 3, 2022
How vegetable oil affects complex rheological properties of wheat gluten for meat analogue applications
Opaluwa, C.; Deskovski, S.; Karbstein, H.; Emin, M. A.
2022. 36th EFFoST International Conference (2022), Dublin, Ireland, November 7–9, 2022
Dispersive mixing of vegetable oil in wheat gluten during high moisture extrusion for meat analogue applications
Opaluwa, C.; Lott, T.; Karbstein, H.; Emin, M. A.
2022. 2nd NIZO Plant Protein Functionality Conference (2022), Online, October 11–13, 2022
2021
Effect of oil content and oil addition point on the extrusion processing of wheat gluten-based meat analogues
Kendler, C.; Duchardt, A.; Karbstein, H. P.; Emin, M. A.
2021. Foods, 10 (4), Art.-Nr.: 697. doi:10.3390/foods10040697

Presentations


2023
Extrusion von Fleischersatzprodukten: Einfluss von Öl auf die rheologischen Eigenschaften von Pflanzenproteinen
Opaluwa, C.
2023, March 15. Jahrestagung der DECHEMA-Fachgruppen Hochdruckverfahrenstechnik und Lebensmittelverfahrenstechnik (2023), Bochum, Germany, March 13–15, 2023
2022
Vegetable oil in meat analogues based on plant proteins: the role of rheological properties in the formation of anisotropic product structures
Opaluwa, C.; Karbstein, H.; Emin, M. A.
2022. 21st IUFoST World Congress of Food Science and Technology (2022), Singapore, Singapore, October 31–November 3, 2022

Posters


2022
Extrusion von pflanzlich basierten Fleischersatzprodukten: Einfluss der Ölzugabe auf die Prozessgrößen und Materialeigenschaften
Opaluwa, C.; Karbstein, H. P.; Emin, M. A.
2022, March 10. Jahrestreffen der ProcessNet-Fachgruppen Lebensmittelverfahrenstechnik und Trocknungstechnik (2022), Frankfurt am Main, Germany, March 10–11, 2022
How vegetable oil affects complex rheological properties of wheat gluten for meat analogue applications
Opaluwa, C.; Deskovski, S.; Karbstein, H.; Emin, M. A.
2022. 36th EFFoST International Conference (2022), Dublin, Ireland, November 7–9, 2022
Dispersive mixing of vegetable oil in wheat gluten during high moisture extrusion for meat analogue applications
Opaluwa, C.; Lott, T.; Karbstein, H.; Emin, M. A.
2022. 2nd NIZO Plant Protein Functionality Conference (2022), Online, October 11–13, 2022