Texture, swallowing and digestibility characteristics of a low-GI dysphagia food as affected by addition of dietary fiber and anthocyanins.

Dysphagia is a common problem in the elderly population, thus texture modifications in foods suitable for dysphagic patients aroused a lot of interest. In the study, low glycemic index (GI) dysphagia foods were designed with adding dietary fiber (DF) and anthocyanins (AS), and their in vitro enzymatic digestion and predicted GI values were investigated by first-order kinetic model and slope log model. Results showed that all samples belonged to dysphagia foods at level 4 (pureed) in the International Dysphagia Diet Standardization Initiative (IDDSI) framework, and exhibited shear thinning behavior. AS reduced the apparent viscosity and storage modulus, increased redness, while DF decreased the hardness and gumminess of dysphagia food masses. DF and AS significantly increased the slowly digestible starch and resistant starch content in food system. With the increased addition of 5 % DF and 3 % AS, the predicted GI value of dysphagia food masses could be decreased to 51.08 ± 2.48, which belonged to the low-GI food, and showed the best water holding capacity and the highest total sensory evaluation score. In addition, a strong correlation was also found between the slow digestion indicators, rheological properties and swallowing ease. This study provides a theoretical foundation for the design of dysphagia food products with slow digestibility and low GI values.