Baking & Snack - November 2014 - 24

INSTRUMENTS

Carrying out Alveograph testing
to predict flour performance,
this instrument generates dough
bubbles in a temperature and
humidity controlled chamber.
Chopin

gluten-free products. By knowing the dough's tolerance, the baker can set up the oven to properly bake
them. Its information also helps optimize proofing
conditions and mixer settings.

The other road
Wheat's protein enables creation of the light, airy texture
that makes many baked foods so popular. "But protein
content does not guarantee flour performance," Mr.
Shadow observed. "Different types of end products require flour with different characteristics."

Gluten-free is an enormous
fork in the road for bakers and
challenges R&D/QA to measure
more variables than ever.
The Perten Glutomatic measures gluten quality in
flour, wheat, durum and semolina. It provides a simple
test, suitable for use at grain or flour receiving stations.
"Results of this test help wheat millers test flour streams
for gluten formation quality and quantity," Mr. Shadow
said. "The results are used to calculate flour blends and
vital wheat gluten addition."
For those who want to dig deeper into the protein
performance of their flours, the Brabender GlutoPeak
instrument reports the performance curve of the tested material, unfolding the complexity of aggregation
and breakdown of the gluten network. A small quantity of flour, 7 to 9 g, is mixed with water, and the test
is run for one to 10 minutes, depending on the sample. Strong flours, such as those suitable for bread or
pasta, show high torque and short gluten aggregation
time, also termed peak maximum time (PMT). Weak
flours, as are used for cookies and crackers, reveal low
torque and long PMT, and very weak flours for mak-

24 Baking & Snack November 2014 / www.bakingandsnack.com

ing wafers or batters exhibit much delayed PMT or no
aggregation at all.
The company's GlutoPeak provides a quick test method to check delivered grain or flour in relation to its
quality specs. "The results will help the miller control
and optimize the receipt of grain," said Marc Gelautz,
marketing, Brabender GmbH & Co. KG, Duisburg,
Germany. "He can decide quickly which quality the
grain has. Later in the process, the instrument can help
find the best mixtures of flour for requested quality."
The instrument is easy to handle in daily use, taking
only minutes to perform its analysis. "Every new flour [received by the bakery] can be checked very quickly," Mr.
Gelautz said. "For R&D, it would be also very helpful because of the short test times when new types of flour are
checked." The GlutoPeak correlates well to bake tests, thus
minimizing the number of such procedures needed.
Digging deeper into protein performance, the Bastak
6100 gluten washer gives results that determine the best
use for a given lot of wheat or flour. "After analysis by
this instrument, the user can determine the best use
- baking, feed or other products," said Suzan Kizilok,
foreign trader and food engineer, Bastak Food Machine
Medical Marketing Co., Ankara, Turkey.
Previously, testing for the amount of wet gluten in
whole wheat and refined flours was done by handwashing a solution of flour and water and extracting
the wet gluten, a tedious and time-consuming activity.
"[That method] had lots of disadvantages, and the results were not trustable," she said. Water temperatures,
washing time and action - all could vary with the person doing the test.
The automatic gluten washer controls the amount of
water, its temperature and the energy put into the washing/kneading action, making test conditions the same
every time. Or the instrument's settings can be changed
to test different times and conditions, as desired. Data
collection allows recording of the sample's source as well
as test results.
The gluten washer can be used as a system with the
company's Dry Gluten 2500 and Gluten Index 2100
devices. The 2500 system gives results as 100% gluten
amount in wheat without water, and the 2100 unit quantifies gluten strength and quality.

The sensory connection
Color and appearance monitoring has been active on
snack lines sorting potato and tortilla chips for a good
number of years. Coupled with reject systems, they keep
substandard pieces out of fast-moving product streams.
Such technologies have proven their worth on bun lines,
too. But automation of other senses - smell and taste,
in particular - is only now emerging in practical form

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Baking & Snack - November 2014

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