Abstract
Bread as a culinary product has a range of physical characteristics that are essential to rating its quality. While the outcomes depend on the wide range of factors, they are quite unpredictable, and scientists are looking for ways to control this process by using a fluorescence spectroscopy method, which allows determining the required components of wheat that are necessary for creating a particular type of product. There are several components that affect the physical and nutritional qualities of bread. Damaged starch is determined to increase the quality of the frozen dough. The general idea behind this quality is the performance of water under temperatures below the freezing level, as damaged starch does not allow it to break the original cell structure. It also takes part as a source of fermentable sugars along with fructan, yet it comes into action only at the second stage of the process. Soluble fiber can affect the primary physical qualities of bread like elasticity and volume, while components like anthocyanins provide a higher nutrition value of this product by lowering the digestion rate of bread that potentially allows to use it as a healthy food choice.
Introduction
Bread is one of the primary food products in the world. It has both nutritional and cultural meaning, coming in all sorts and shapes depending on the country. Nevertheless, the main principle of bread production remains the same, being based on the process of fermentation. Depending on the components and their proportion, the dough receives certain physical qualities that define the quality of the final product. This paper reviews the latest findings in food technology regarding the subject of bread production.
Controlling the Process
The most important step that influences the outcome quality of the final product is the ingredients and their combination. More precisely, creating a homogeneous mass by blending the components, developing gluten, and incorporating air are the fundamental elements. However, many factors like temperature and humidity level also play an important role. While bakers rely mostly on the path of finding the best strategy through experience, scientists have created a method allowing them to control the process of dough development through the 3D-front-face fluorescence spectroscopy [1]. This approach allowed them to determine that gluten and ferulic acid are the two chemical components that determine the final physical qualities of bread.
Damaged Starch
Frozen Dough
Recent studies show that ingredients such as damaged starch positively affect the physical characteristics of bread [2]. For instance, it makes products more elastic and easy to chew. Other characteristics benefit as well since bread becomes whiter and softer, with a lower degree of hardness. It also appeared that frozen dough that incorporated mechanically damaged starch performed better when used for baking after the process of defrosting. It was mainly associated with the effect of water being kept in a frozen condition instead of leaving the gluten cell structure. Finally, damaged starch influences the volume of bread, increasing it to a very high level.
Fermentation Process
Fermentation is the principal process occurring in the dough during its development. The main chemical compound that takes part in it is sugar and its derivatives. Damaged starch is determined to be one of the components that have an effect on fermentable sugars [3]. Scientists used the method of hydration and hydrolyzation to dextrins of starch granules. Dextrins were later converted to glucose. It appeared that maltose, which was associated with the presence of damaged starch, took an active part in the fermentation process only at the second stage after glucose and fructose have already reacted. This finding could be useful for choosing the sort of wheat depending on its chemical compounds to better control the fermentation of the dough.
Physical Characteristics
A lot of studies are conducted to make bread a more attractive product regarding its physical characteristics. Due to the fact that elasticity is one of its main qualities, the guar gum extract was used to test its effect on this element [4]. It appeared that various levels of water are the most important factor for utilizing this component. The main finding states that guar gum makes the bread more elastic and voluminous. Moreover, it increases the amount of dietary fiber, which can be used in producing health-oriented bakery.
Health Impact
Recent studies suggest that it is possible to decrease the digestion rate of bread products by adding components high on anthocyanins [5]. For instance, this chemical compound can be extracted from black rice in the form of powder, which is later added to wheat. Physical characteristics were slightly affected by this ingredient, making bread less elastic and denser, which is not necessarily a bad culinary quality. The research suggests that incorporating anthocyanins in bakery products will help to create a range of healthy products with a slow protein base.
Conclusion
Bread is a product that has its quality dependent on physical and nutritional characteristics. Research suggests that experimenting with the chemical compound may help increasing particular quality rates while eliminating the others. There are ways of monitoring the fermentation processes in dough by using a spectroscopy analysis built around the components’ ability to create fluorescence waves. The same process was determined to have different stages regarding the sugar participation. Finally, natural and artificial ingredients are used to increase the levels of healthy elements like fiber that can transfer this type of product to a dietary level.
References
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