Studies of phase transformations in the gelatine-water system using near-IR spectroscopy

Near-IR spectroscopy studies of gel formation mechanism are reported for gelatin-water systems. Relative absorbance in 1.4-μm and 1.9-μm bands was shown to be sensitive to the helix to coil phase transition in the pre-melting region. The formation mechanism of a metastable “coil” phase is in agreement with DSC and TGA data obtained in parallel experiments on the 10% gelatin gel. Received: 12 April 2000 Accepted: 4 October 2000