# Impact of Coconut Copra Byproducts Incorporation on Granola Quality Characteristics
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Rheological Properties of Blends
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Sample**} & **Peak** & **Trough** & **Breakdown** & **Final** & **Setback** & **Peak Time** & **Pasting Temperature** \\  & **Viscosity** & **Viscosity** & **Viscosity** & **Viscosity** & **Viscosity** & **Peak Time** & **Temperature** \\  & & & & **[mPa-s] & & **[s]** & [\({}^{\circ}\)C] \\ \hline BF & 5249.0 \(\pm\) 158.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 3806.0 \(\pm\) 9.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 1443.0 \(\pm\) 148.5 \({}^{\circ}\) & 5723.5 \(\pm\) 202.9 \({}^{\circ}\) & 1918.0 \(\pm\) 193.7 \({}^{\circ}\) & 5.7 \(\pm\) 0.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 84.3 \(\pm\) 1.4 \({}^{\circ}\) \\ CC50/50 BF & 1207.0 \(\pm\) 68.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 1170.0 \(\pm\) 31.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 11.0 \(\pm\) 0.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 1518.5 \(\pm\) 51.6 \({}^{\circ}\) & 348.5 \(\pm\) 20.5 \({}^{\circ}\) & 5.6 \(\pm\) 0.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 85.6 \(\pm\) 0.1 \({}^{\circ}\) \\ CC75/25 BF & 253.0 \(\pm\) 0.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 241.0 \(\pm\) 0.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 12.0 \(\pm\) 0.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 383.0 \(\pm\) 0.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 142.0 \(\pm\) 0.0 \({}^{\circ}\) & 7.9 \(\pm\) 0.2 \({}^{\circ}\) & 85.0 \(\pm\) 0.0 \({}^{\circ}\) \\ \hline \end{tabular} BF—banana flour; CC—ccount copra; lowercase letters mean significant differences in a column at \(p\) = 0.05.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Pasting characteristics of coconut copra and blends. Figure 4: Pasting curves of coconut copra and blends. BF—banana flour, CC—coconut copra. banana flour demonstrated substantially higher hardness values, reaching 3.39 \(\pm\) 0.47 N, indicating its superior ability to form strong, cohesive gel structures. This high hardness value can be attributed to the higher starch content of banana flour, which likely facilitated stronger molecular interactions during the cooling phase, resulting in a more rigid and stable gel network. The distinct differences in gel hardness among the samples highlight the importance of ingredient composition and interactions in determining the final texture and structure of the product. [PERSON] (2020) [32] recorded the hardness of banana flour gels below 0.25 N, which is significantly lower than for our BF gels. However, [PERSON] et al. (2024) [33] obtained gels from banana flour with a hardness below 1.19 N, which is about three times lower than our BF gels. When CC was blended with BF in equal proportions (CC50/50 BF), the gel hardness decreased dramatically to 0.53 \(\pm\) 0.08 N, representing an approximately 84% reduction in gel strength. This significant decrease suggests that the addition of CC strongly moderates the gel-forming properties of BF, likely due to CC's lipid content interfering with the continuous gel network formation. The CC75/25 BF blend showed no measurable gel formation (0.00 N), indicating that at this higher proportion of CC, the gel-forming ability of the mixture was completely inhibited. This complete loss of gel structure suggests that the high lipid content and protein-lipid interactions from CC prevent the formation of a coherent starch-based network. These results align with the pasting behavior observations, where higher CC content led to reduced viscosity development. The gel hardness patterns demonstrate that CC incorporation can effectively modulate the textural properties of final products, which could be particularly beneficial in applications where softer, less rigid structures are desired, such as in granola formulations where excessive hardness might be undesirable.