Signs of the Times

It now takes more than 24 hours to get results from current tests such as the Farinograph, as the wheat needs to be milled into flour before evaluation, Sorenson says.

“For the export market, a quick test is needed to allow for testing of the grain as it is being loaded in ships to ensure that the grain is meeting the buyer’s needs for end-use quality,” he continues. “In order to meet the needs of the milling and baking industries in the U.S. and abroad, improving this technology will be critical.”

A flour quality instrument called Mixolab (developed by Chopin) is now gaining interest by combining capabilities of the industry’s well-established Farinograph (C.W. Brabender), which measures physical dough properties like water absorption, development time and mixing stability, and the Rapid Visco Analyzer (does this measure starch, putting it in the same phrase with the Amylograph?) (Newport Scientific) and the Amylograph (C.W. Brabender Instruments), which measure starch properties.

The Mixolab allows processors to look at the affect of temperature on both the proteins and starch in a dough system at moisture content consistent with actual processing, Sorenson explains. One example of new equipment for measuring bread and fermented product quality, the C-Cell imaging system (Calibre Control International, Ltd.), scans a slice of bread and immediately determines a number of parameters, such as shape, color, cell size and elongation.

“Wheat processors are getting more sophisticated and automated and they want to keep things consistent relative to production,” Sorenson says. “That’s why the processing industry is increasing the number of quality parameters in purchasing contracts. If grain meets the official U.S. grade, but doesn’t ultimately meet the needs of processors, processors won’t be happy.”

References:

• www.extension.iastate.edu/grain
• ww.grainquality.org
• www.ilcrop.com
• www.oznet.k-state.edu/dp_grsi/brochures/GQRP%20brochure.pdf
• www.northern-crops.com

Linda L. Leake , a graduate student in food safety at Michigan State University, is a freelance journalist who writes about food quality and food safety issues from her home in Wilmington, NC.