Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Measuring – testing – or controlling by inanimate means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-20
2002-01-29
Hendricks, Keith (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Measuring, testing, or controlling by inanimate means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06342259
ABSTRACT:
This application is a 371 of PCT/AU98/00267, filed Apr. 16, 1999.
The present invention relates to a novel, rapid and non-invasive method of monitoring the redistribution of water in protein-containing multi-phase systems during a mixing or processing step. The method of the invention is particularly applicable to food products. In a preferred embodiment, the invention relates to monitoring dough development and dough mixing properties using near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, particularly through monitoring the variation in three specific absorbance wavelengths.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Dough mixing is the most critical stage in the production of bread products. The dough must be mixed to a stage loosely referred to as “optimum development”, and water must be added to the optimum absorption level of the flour for subsequent ease of processing and to ensure good end-product quality. The characteristics of the dough are partly affected by the type of flour used, for example “very strong flour”, “strong flour”, “medium flour” or “biscuit flour”. “Very strong” or “strong” flours are characterised by their rheological “strength” properties as having a high degree of resistance to extension when a dough prepared from the flour is stretched using a standard testing device known as a Brabender Extensograph. They also have a long dough mixing or development time when mixed in either a commercial dough mixer or in one of the smaller test mixers, for example the Mixograph or the Farinograph. The dough also has a high degree of “stability” or resistance to break-down. Thus if mixed for a longer period than the optimum mixing time, such a dough will retain its characteristic mixing properties. Doughs which do not have strength breakdown, so that they have a sloppy, batter-like consistency, and can be mixed with little resistance. A dough which is prone to breakdown will cause enormous problems during processing. For example such a dough will not hold the gas produced by the yeast during baking, and thus will not rise so as to provide a good bread loaf volume and consistency. Conversely, a “medium” strength flour will exhibit lower stability and have a higher degree of breakdown, while a “biscuit” flour would be unsuitable for bread-making because of its poor stability. Stability is not required for biscuits. For these reasons, monitoring of dough development is of enormous importance to the baking industry.
A number of methods are commonly used to estimate dough development using laboratory scale mixers. The most popular measurement is that of mixing torque (Voisey, P. W., Miller, H. and Kloek, M., Cereal Chemistry, 1966 43 408-419; Voisey, P. W. Cereal Chemistry, 1974 51 841-847), using strain gauges attached to the mixer. An alternative method involves the measurement of the power consumption of the mixer (Anderson, R. A. and Lancaster, E. B. Cereal Chemistry, 1967 34 379-388; Kilborn, R. H. and Dempster, C. J. Cereal Chemistry, 1965 42 432-435). Alternatively, dough development in commercial mixers can be measured using a probe that, through a load cell, measures the force exerted by dough moving around the mixing bowl (Kilborn, R. H and Preston, K. R., Bakers Journal, 1981 16-19; Wilson, A. J. and Newberry, M. P., Food Technology in New Zealand, 1995 30 36-40). Each of these measurements, whilst useful, requires or is based on the results of direct physical interaction with the dough, and does not directly measure the chemical changes that occur during dough development. In addition, it has been reported that mixing beyond the time to peak resistance, as indicated by power consumption and mixograph produces higher quality loaves of bread (Zounis, S. and Quail, K. J., “Predicting Test Bakery Requirements from Laboratory Mixing Tests”, Journal of Cereal Science, 1997 25 185-196).
It is also well established that there is a relationship between glutenin content (or glutenin/gliadin ratio) and particular dough properties. See for example, Preston, K. R. and Tipples, K. H., Cereal Chemistry, 1980 57 314-320; MacRitchie, F., Journal of Cereal Science, 1985 3 221-230; and MacRitchie, F., Royal Society of Chemistry, London, 1986 132-146. During mixing, changes can occur in the composition of the polymeric phase of the gluten which relate to the dough rheological properties.
As used in this specification the term “dough” refers to milled flour or wholemeal from a cereal, including but not limited to bread wheat (
Triticum aestivum
L.), added to water and other ingredients in any proportion which may include but are not limited to yeast, fat, salt and other Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) food ingredients, to which mechanical work is applied to develop a product useful for food application.
As used in this specification the term “gliadin protein” is applied to a family of glutamine- and proline-rich proteins of wheat seed endosperm, which proteins are monomeric seed storage compounds and which subunits are encoded by genes on the short arms of homologous chromosomes 1 and 6 of wheat (
Triticum aestivum, Triticum turgidum
var. durum) and related cereal species. As used in this specification the term “glutenin protein” is applied to a family of glutamine and proline-rich proteins of wheat seed endosperm, which proteins are a polymeric complex of disulfide-bonded seed storage polypeptide compounds and which subunits are encoded by genes on the long and short arms of homologous chromosomes 1 of wheat (
Triticum aestivum, Triticum turgidum
var. durum) and related cereal species.
The near infrared spectrum of flour consists of absorbances which are repeated at intervals across the wavelength range 800-2500 nm. The absorbances are due to specific chemical bonds and can be readily related to specific constituents of the flour.
NIR analysis has been used to monitor the principal constituents of flour, and to monitor water content of baked or processed foods through determination of specific absorbances in the near-infrared spectrum. It has been reported that NIR can be used to monitor the sucrose, fat, flour and water content of biscuit doughs (Osborne, B. G., Fearn, T., Miller, A. R. and Douglas, S., Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 1984 35 99-105). NIR is most commonly used as a rapid analysis technique for quality control purposes, and usually involves calibration against a reference laboratory method. There are few studies on the use of NIR as a fundamental measurement tool, and even fewer on the use of NIR to follow chemical changes in materials. NIR has been used to follow the staling of bread (Wilson, R. H., Goodfellow, B. J., Belton, P. S., Osborne, B. G., Oliver, G. and Russell, P. L., J. Sci. Food. Agric. 1991 54 471-483) by fitting first order equations to spectral changes, and hence calculating rate constants for the staling process. On the basis of these results, the authors concluded that NIR could be used to gain information on the fundamental nature of the process that occurred during bread staling. However, the use of NIR to study the consistency of doughs has not been suggested.
Instruments and methods for determination of total protein content in dough or in whole grain have been described. U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,584 by Rosenthal discloses a NIR instrument for either reflectance or transmittance spectroscopy, depending on the sample chamber used, and with a range of wavelengths available for either mode. European Patent Application No. 511184 by Perten describes an instrument for very rapid NIR analysis of unground grain by reflectance spectroscopy, using a set of predetermined wavelengths in the range 1050-1400 nm provided by means of a continuous rotatable disc filter device. U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,825 by Reed and Psotka describes an apparatus for simultaneous visible and NIR analysis in a flour product, for determination of ash content and protein content respectively. The instrument may be used in either the reflectance or transmittance mode, and the preferred infrared wavelength is 1368 nm.
All of the instruments and methods described in the prior art are direct
Larsen Nigel Grant
Osborne Brian George
Skerritt John Howard
Wesley Ian John
Foley & Lardner
Grains Research and Development Corporation
Hendricks Keith
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