Qualitative assessment of flour with a depth consistency meter and ...

Volume 14(3), 101-105, 2010JOURNAL of Horticulture, Forestry and BiotechnologyQualitative assessment of flour with a depth consistency meterand the consistence of dough with medium rate of viscosityBujancă G. 1* , Jianu C. 1 , Danci M. 2 , Berbentea F. 1 , Georgescu L. 1 , David I. 1 , Rinovetz A. 1 ,Rinovetz Adina 31 Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences And Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Food ProcessingTechnology; 2 Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences And Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Horticulturaand Sylviculture; 3 “Jean Louis Calderon” High School, Timisoara*Corresponding author. Email: gabibujanca@gmail.comAbstract In wheat flour, the most advantageous viscosity is 60% and theduration of fermentation is 3 hours, since the decisive results after the firstminute depend on milling and on panification. In the case of rye flour, themost advantageous viscosity is 65% for a duration of fermentation of 1 to 3hours. We can as well lower the fermentation time to only 30 minutes, for alower dough consistency, corresponding to 145.58 ml of water for 100 g drysubstance.Key wordsviscosity, flour, consistencymeterIn the milling and panification industry, it isabsolutely necessary to thoroughly control rawmaterials, finite products, and the entire technologicalprocess from both a technological and a chemical pointof view.Laboratories analyse cereal grains, flour, andpanification products after standardised methods;besides that, they also control chemically the entireproduction. It is necessary though that control methodsbe quick, simple, and safe.Material and MethodsAuermann (1) showed a method of testing flours with adepth consistency meter. This method is sued in themilling and panification laboratories due to thesimplicity and accuracy of the results. The principle isbased on the fact that flours called “strong” also yieldmore consistent dough than “weak” flours and thatdough consistency is quickly noticeable during doughfermentation. They made a consistency meter (Figure 1)after the description in his work (1).Fig. 1. Consitometer101

In principle, the apparatus is made up of atempered metal cylinder, having a certain weight andfixed on an axis immersed into dough in a recipient.The depth of the immersion is transmitted by anindicator fixed on a suspension device of the cylinderon a circular frame and is expressed in divisions from 0to 600.Auermann chose for weak flour testing wheatflour and rye flour dough; for wheat flour, he used alighter cylinder (35 g) and for rye flour a heavier one(110 g). In the apparatus, the cylinder weight is low sothat it can be sued for both normal wheat and ryedough and for rye fermentation (2, 3).To measure dough consistency, the flour to betested is kneaded with distilled water making ahomogeneous dough at laboratory temperature; thedough is let to ferment in a thermostat at 30 0 C forwheat flour and at 35 0 C for rye flour (2).The amount of flour was chosen so as thedough fills a glass recipient with thick walls and with adiameter of 6 cm and a height of 7 cm. To prevent thedough surface from drying in the thermostat, it was setin a capsule or in a crystallisator adding a small amountof water.Together with the dough, we introduce intothe thermostat the cylinder of the consistency meterwhich is unscrewed for its temperature to equal that ofthe dough. After fermentation, the dough is tested withthe cylinder brought to the dough temperature.Results and DiscussionsThe testing conditions have been developedseparately for the wheat flour dough and separately forthe rye flour dough.a) Wheat flourFor testing, we have chosen the T 650 type offlour, preparing a dough from 130 g of flour 14%moisture with water addition corresponding to aviscosity of 60%. If the flour has a higher or a smallermoisture than 14%, then the amount of water should berecalculated depending on flour moisture so that for100 g of dry substance made of flour we add 86 ml ofwater. We can use the formula:1.3 x flour dry substance x 0.86 – 1.3 x flourmoistureor:1.118 x flour dry substance – 1.3 x flourmoisture.We tried different dough consistencies ofdough with viscosity 55%, 60%, and 63%, since meanviscosity of panification flour varies around 60%. Moreconsistent dough proved improper because of the smalldepth of the cylinder and of the difficulties ofpreparation; likewise, results were not satisfactory inless consistent dough with a viscosity of about 70%because of the difficulty of preparation.Less consistent dough should be tested with alighter cylinder adapted to the task. The immersiondepth of the body was measured for each minute for 5minutes of which the most decisive was the depthmeasured after the first minute. For testing, we used 4high quality wheat samples milled in an experimentalmill of the 650 type. In these samples, we alsomeasured for comparison milling qualities (toughness,moisture) and panification qualities. Results are shownin Table 1.Umiditate%The immersion depth and milling qualities (toughness, moisture) and panification qualitiesDuritate12,43 Semidură12,33 Dură12,60 SemidurăFineţeafăiniiFoartefinăSemigrişatăSemigrişatăGluten umedraportat lasubstanţa uscată35,4036,9635,4712,51 Moale Fină 30,86Caracteristicileglutenului:elasticitatea,alungirea sicapacitatea deumflare in cmşi ml4101648205101631112RandamentulînmlVâscozitatea%361 67,3347 65,7338 64,3350 59,1Produse depanifiicaţie,culoare,suprafaţă,înălţimea, mmBrun închis,netedă 58Brun închis,netedă 53Brun închis,netedă 52Brun deschiscrăpată puternic50Table 1Nr. deordine1234Table 2 shows the values read with theconsistency meter after dough fermentation for 1.2 to 3hours for a duration of 5 minutes. Fermentation wascontrolled successively hour after hour, to see thevariation of the dough consistency.102

Proba nr.Vascozitatea %1 2 31 ore1 2 3Min.Values read with the consistency meterValues read with the consistency meter4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 32 ore3 ore4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3Min.Min.Table 24 54 555113118123132141-----1471551621651712601702252502802952202452602702782202622953203326321332035037439520426730834237218824828531233855179203218227250-----1701831901931957602252552832883002152282352452522322782852902956322828331734035828232034536838827832035537539555190223235243250-----1902002052082135602002302522652801902302602702802402973273483636328835038039540032236539241243028233536039044055150170183198207-----23325026227228036028831534036036022028030532533529234037039341063350440500--397500700--405500635--After the testing, the dough was left in therecipient in the thermostat. The wheat was semi-hard tohard; we used mild wheat in a single sample. From thepoint of view of the panification industry, we used highand medium quality flours. The features of thedifferent assortments of flour are better shown in thediagramme than in the table. Figure 1 shows how flournr. 2 changes the dough consistency during 1-3 hours.Fig. 1. Changes of consistency during 1-3 hoursFig. 1 shows how flour nr. 2 changes thedough consistency during 1-3 hoursFigure 2 compares dough consistency in allfour samples after 3 hours, which proved to be themost advantageous for the assessment of wheat doughquality since it corresponds to the results of milling andpanification trials.Higher slope curves show a lower consistencyof the dough and a lower quality of the flour.103

Fig. 2. Dough consistencyb) Rye flourWe have chosen T 930 flours of mediumquality as current consumption flours. We testedconsistency for a viscosity of 60% and 65% fordifferent weights of the immersion body whose weightwas increased by weight addition. Since for theseviscosities the values were lower and on the averagerelatively little differentiated (up to a viscosity of 65%and a cylinder weight of 305 g) we also tried doughwith lower consistency after 30 minutes offermentation. For testing, we took 80 g of flour 15%moist to which we added 87 ml of water. The doughwas prepared with distilled water al laboratorytemperature.As in the case of wheat flour, the amount ofwater should be recalculated depending on moistureand at a given ratio. We can also use the formula:1.66 x flour dry substance x 1.456 – 0.8 xflour moistureor:1.66 flour dry substance – 0.8 x flour moisture.Results are shown in Table 3.Greutatea(g)105205305205305Values read with the consistency meter after fermentationValues read with the consistency meter after fermentation1 ore 2 ore 3 ore1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3minuteminuteminute82 88 90 93 96 82 90 91 103 107 - - -- - - - - 113 120 130 133 135 110 120 132- - - - - - - - - - 130 150 170110-120-130-140-150-117160137180153190170205182220125180135200160215Table 34 5-140195180230-148215190240Fig. 3. Graphic representation of the immersion104

Graphic representation of the immersion isshown in Figure 3.For T 650 wheat flour, the most advantageousviscosity is 60% and the duration of fermentation is 3hours, since the decisive results after the first minutecorrespond to milling and panification trials. Viscosityof 60% for current wheat flours best correspond fromboth practical and experimental points of view sincethe values are in the middle of the scale 200 – 250.Super quality wheat flours are below 200, while weakand very weak flours are above 300. From theimmersion depth values read every hour we can deducea lot of data concerning the behaviour of flours inpanification.The features of dough can be better seengraphically. The abrupt shape of the curves shows ararefied, low quality dough. Figure 1 shows in sample2 changes during fermentation which speak of doughconsistency. This could be similar for other samples;the curves 1, 2, and 3 hours after fermentation showingclearly the way dough behaves during panification andthe duration of fermentation.This trial can also supply information on theimpact of adding ingredients and on flour change aswell as on the ideal consistency of dough which leadsto an improvement of the product quality. Doughbehaviour is a result of multiple factors; both thefeatures of the complex of protease proteins and of thecarbon-amylase hydrates.Figures shown in Tables 3 and 4, and inFigure 3 show that for rye flours of the T 930 type themost advantageous viscosity of 65% for a duration offermentation of 1 to 3 hours and for a body weight of305 g. We can as well carry out the trial in a shorterperiod of time of only ½ hours, for a lower consistencyof the dough corresponding to 145.58 ml of water for100 g of dry substance.ProbaHumidity%Values read with the consistency meter for rye flourMaltose ViscosityAcidity%%Numerele indicate de consistometru dupaminutul1 2 3 4 5312 362 385 400 419330 402 460 498 512375 480 480 500 514Tabel 412313,3413,0111,228,6 2,0 71,63,9 1,9 69,89,5 2,02 68,8We compared the results supplied by theconsistency meter with those supplied by thefarinograph and they showed that these values wereconcordant.Taking into account the simplicity, the precision of theresults and the possibility of applying a method asmuch as possible both in mills and in bakeries, werecommend this trial to be introduced in productioncontrol laboratories.ConclusionsMore consistent dough proved improper because of thesmall depth of immersion of the cylinder and of thedifficulties of preparation.Less consistent dough (70% viscosity) neither provedsatisfactory because of the difficulties of preparation.In all these analyses should be recalculated the amountof water for both rye flour moisture (15%) and wheatflour moisture (14%).References1.Auermann, M. N., “Practice of Flour Milling”, TheNorthen Publishing Co LTD Liverpol, England 1986.2.Bordei, D., “Influenţa proceselor tehnologice asupracalităţii produselor alimenatre” Ed. Tehnică, Bucureşti,1984.3.Popescu, S., “Biochimia cerealelor, făinurilor şiconservarea lor”, Ed. Didactică şi Pedagogică,Bucureşti, 1984.105