World Grain - October 2014 - 56

FEATURE: THE NEW LOOK

Optimized gluten method
How gluten-free is your gluten-free product? For celiac sufferers and gluten-sensitive
individuals, that's not a frivolous question.
Cereal scientists on the AACC International Protein and Enzyme Methods Committee
released two new methods for determining and quantifying gluten in processed foods
labeled gluten-free. Both observe the Codex Alimentarius guideline level of no more
than 200 ppm (20 mg per kg). In August 2013, the Food and Drug Administration announced the same threshold for labeling gluten-free foods. One method, No. 38-50.01,
covers foods made from corn flour and corn-based ingredients; the other, No. 38-55.01,
concerns fermented cereal-based products. Both employ enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay (ELISA) kits.
Food Machine Medical Marketing Co.,
Ankara, Turkey.
Previously, testing for the amount of
wet gluten in whole wheat and refined
flours was done by hand-washing 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
56

form with lab-scaled instruments: the
so-called e-nose and e-tongue.
Gas chromatography provides the
basis for the Heracles electronic nose
instrument from Alpha MOS America,
Hanover, Maryland, U.S. As an option,
the system's software uses a database library of more than 40,000 compounds
for aroma and chemical analysis. The
software characterizes compounds separated by the gas chromatograph matches
them based on Kovats Index.
The company's Astree electronic
tongue analyzes a liquid sample, detecting
all compounds responsible for taste and
calculates the resulting data to asses basic
tastes (sweet, bitter, sour, salty, umami)
and other gustatory components (metallic, pungent, astringent and so forth). The
instrument uses chemically sensitive fieldeffect transistors to make potentiometric

Handheld colorimeters ensure consistent finished
product appearance. Photo courtesy of Konica
Minolta Sensing Americas.

measurements and sensors tuned to ionic,
neutral and chemical compounds responsible for taste. An optional taste-ranking
module helps classify similar products

Crumb structure and color are evaluated for as
many as 48 different parameters. Photo courtesy
of Calibre Control International Ltd.

based on their intensity of attributes such
as sweetness, bitterness, sourness, saltiness, umami and so on.
Handheld color measurement systems
found a permanent home in bakeries nearly a decade ago and continue to be refined.
The BC-10 from Konica Minolta Sensing
Americas, Ramsey, New Jersey, U.S.,
quantifies color of crusts and most bakery
and snack food products, as well as block
yeast, brown sugar, calcium propionate
and blended flour. The user just places the
meter on a sample and presses a button.
The newest wrinkle in color monitoring at the lab level is the C-Cell
Colour System from Calibre Control
International Ltd., Warrington, U.K.
Introduced at the 2013 International
Baking Industry Exposition, this instrument uses proprietary Crust Unwrap
technology to profile the external crust
of baked foods and quantifies the color
on the surface and crumb. It can analyze, identify and quantify inclusions
such as dried fruits, seeds and chocolate
chips. The basic C-Cell imaging system
analyzes cross sections (slices) of baked
foods for air cell and hole characteristics including number, diameter, area,
volume, distribution and clustering.
The changes being made in bakery and
mill lab instrumentation reflect the need
to know more about raw ingredients,
in-process materials and finished goods.
The results reflect how science of baking
supports the art of making safe, appealing baked foods for consumers.
We want to hear from you - Send comments and
inquiries to worldgrain@sosland.com. For reprints of
WG articles, e-mail reprints@sosland.com.

October 2014 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - October 2014

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