Influence of growing conditions on the technological performance of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Quality and Safety Aspects of Cereals (Wheat) and Their Products

Cereals and, most specifically, wheat are described in this chapter highlighting on their safety and quality aspects. Moreover, wheat quality aspects are adequately addressed since they are used to characterize dough properties and baking quality. Determination of dough properties is also mentioned and pasta quality is also described in this chapter. Chemometrics-multivariate analysis is one of the analyses carried out. Regarding production weighing/mixing of flours, kneading, extruded wheat flours, and sodium chloride are important processing steps/raw materials used in the manufacturing of pastry products. Staling of cereal-based products is also taken into account. Finally, safety aspects of cereal-based products are well documented with special emphasis on mycotoxins, acrylamide, and near infrared methodology.

RP-HPLC and chemometrics for wheat flour protein characterisation in an industrial bread-making process monitoring context

In the baking industry, a difficult task is to keep the quality perceived by the consumer as constant as possible, given the inner variability of flour, e.g. due to different wheat mixtures, harvesting time, etc. Here, we evaluated the influence of flour batches properties on bread quality, considering an industrial bread making process. In particular, flour composition in terms of protein fractions (gliadins, glutenins) has been determined by means of RP-HPLC, to assess the inter- and intra-batch variability of flour mixtures deliveries at a baking plant. Multivariate data analysis allowed evaluation of correlation between flour protein composition and technological properties. A great variability within different deliveries of a same flour batch emerged, as well as a considerable seasonal variability. Correlation models among protein sub-fractions, technological properties and bread quality are difficult to establish; however, the role of the protein profile on flour behaviour in bread making could be highlighted.

Perspectives to breed for improved baking quality wheat varieties adapted to organic growing conditions

Northwestern European consumers like their bread to be voluminous and easy to chew. These attributes require a raw material that is rich in protein with, among other characteristics, a suitable ratio between gliadins and glutenins. Achieving this is a challenge for organic growers, because they lack cultivars that can realise high protein concentrations under the relatively low and variable availability of nitrogen during the grain-filling phase common in organic farming. Relatively low protein content in wheat grains thus needs to be compensated by a high proportion of high-quality protein. Organic farming therefore needs cultivars with genes encoding for optimal levels of glutenins and gliadins, a maximum ability for nitrogen uptake, a large storage capacity of nitrogen in the biomass, an adequate balance between vegetative and reproductive growth, a high nitrogen translocation efficiency for the vegetative parts into the grains during grain filling and an efficient conversion of nitrogen into high-quality proteins. In this perspective paper the options to breed and grow such varieties are discussed.