Wheat flour quality is varied; some types are good to produce fresh bread, while others are specifically used for cakes, biscuits or other bakery products. If the characteristics of the supplied flour are not strictly the same as those required and this fact is not assessed, the entire production could be lost creating large economic damage.
Since large amounts of wheat flour are used in a bakery plant and since they usually come from different suppliers, it is mandatory to continuously check every batch supplied, for the moisture and protein content and moreover the rheological parameters. These are the farinographic ones, like water absorption, or the alveographic ones, like W (baking strength of dough) and P, L (dough strength and extensibility). The picture could be completed with the Hagberg Index, as well as with the damaged starch quantification.
Different flour producers and bakery industries have demonstrated that the NIR technique can be used directly on the flour itself to assess in a single rapid measurement all the parameters mentioned above.
Profiting from these experiences and using its FT-NIR spectrometers, BUCHI has created its NIRSolution for milling and bakery industries.
