Report on 2013 C&E Spring Meeting in Leuven, Belgium – Unlocking the Full Potential of Cereals: Challenges for Science Based Innovation

status: publishe

The role of wheat flour constituents, sugar and fat in low moisture cereal based products: a review on sugar-snap cookies

Much research has been done to understand the contribution of different flour constituents to the cookie quality. Most authors agree on the role of starch in cookies, which, although it is the main flour constituent, has a relative small influence on cookie quality. Flour proteins, which are quantitatively less important than starch, seem to have a more pronounced role in cookie baking. However, in literature, there is no consensus about their role and influence on the product quality. As for starch, there is much more agreement about the role of non-starch polysaccharides and flour lipids. Not only flour, but also other ingredients of the cookie (dough) formula, such as shortening (fat), sugar and water are important for the quality of the end product. We here provide the different points of view in this area and speculate on the functionality and quality determining properties of flour constituents, sugar, fat and water and their role and influence during the different stages of cookie baking and on the end quality of sugar-snap cookies.status: publishe

Single run HPLC separation coupled to evaporative light scattering detection unravels wheat flour endogenous lipid redistribution during bread dough making

Wheat flour lipids present a complex mixture of components with varying polarities and have been classified as either starch or non-starch lipids, the latter being further subdivided in free and bound lipids depending on the extraction method and solvents used. A novel separation and detection method for wheat lipids in flour and dough that separates both non-polar and polar lipid classes in a single run HPLC analysis using a monolithic silica column and a quaternary gradient and detects them with evaporative light scattering is presented. The method was applied to study in-depth the changes in lipid distribution during bread dough development, thereby monitoring the fate of the different lipid classes. Full dough development was not necessary to decrease the extractability of both non-polar and polar free lipids and increase their levels in the bound lipid extract. The data for the first time also showed which specific lipid classes were redistributed and transferred from starch to gluten, as confirmed by analyzing starch fractions. In addition, not all redistributed lipids interacted in a similar way with the gluten proteins. Major changes occurred during the first 30 s of mixing after which slight changes were observed for triacylglycerols, free fatty acids, lysophosphatidylcholine, and N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine.status: publishe

Sugar-snap cookie dough setting: the impact of sucrose on gluten functionality

In sugar-snap cookie making, sucrose influences the physicochemical transformations of the flour components and is responsible for both cookie sweetness and texture. Sucrose, together with low moisture levels, raises the starch gelatinization temperature to such an extent that little if any of it gelatinizes during baking. However, there is no agreement on the effects that it has on gluten during cookie making. The present study revealed that increasing sucrose levels in the recipe increasingly delay or inhibit gluten cross-linking, as judged from the loss of sodium dodecyl sulfate-extractable protein. This causes cookies containing higher sucrose levels to set later and to have a larger diameter. Gluten entanglement and/or cross-linking result in resistance to collapse, at the same time, cause setting during baking and, hence, determine cookie diameter.status: publishe

A lipase based approach for studying the role of wheat lipids in bread making

status: publishe

Wheat starch swelling, gelatinization and pasting: Effects of enzymatic modification of wheat endogenous lipids

Starch is widely used in food industry because of its unique gelling, thickening and stabilizing capacities. These characteristics are impacted by added surfactants. However, less is known about whether and, if so, how wheat endogenous lipids impact the swelling behaviour of starch granules. We here used three different lipases (Lecitase Ultra, Lipopan F and Lipolase) with known impact on the endogenous lipid composition and two surfactants (diacetyl tartaric esters of mono- and diacylglycerols and sodium stearoyl lactylate) for studying the impact of (endogenous) lipids on starch rheology and carbohydrate leaching. The study revealed that although amylose-lipid inclusion complex formation affects wheat starch swelling and carbohydrate leaching, there is no causal relation between the two latter phenomena. Both their location and type affect the impact of lipids on starch swelling. Next to the complex forming ability of lipid(-like) components, their ability to shield starch granules from water by forming lipophilic layers also affects starch granule swelling because it delays water absorption and increases starch granule rigidity.status: publishe

Non-additive behavior of starch blends at intermediate water contents: a differential scanning calorimetry and proton nuclear magnetic resonance study

status: publishe

The Rheo Extrusion Meter, a New Device for Measuring Wheat Flour Baking Absorption and Dough Consistency: Principle and Applications

The Rheo Extrusion Meter (REM) measures the time for vertical upward extrusion of wheat flour dough (subsequently referred to as extrusion time, ET) as a measure of its consistency. ET evidently increases with dough consistency. ETs are highly reproducible and sensitive to differences in dough moisture content. A single REM analysis takes 20 min, and the measured ET can be converted into the correct baking absorption at a given temperature. The heights of the extruded dough pieces are negatively correlated with straight-dough bread loaf specific volume, both when comparing different flour samples and when adjusting moisture content of dough prepared from a given flour sample. The REM also allows determination of the consistency of complex wheat flour based systems and the impact of vital wheat gluten or ascorbic acid thereupon. Furthermore, in contrast to the farinograph, it detects the impact of endoxylanases hydrolyzing water-extractable arabinoxylan on dough consistency.status: publishe