Evaluation of Wheat Dough Properties by NIR Spectral Analysis of Flour

Abstract

The article deals with the possibility of predicting technological quality of dough by NIR spectroscopy. Seven quality indices were evaluated - the protein content, Zeleny sedimentation value, four alveograph indices, and gas volume - using a dispersion NIR spectrometer and interferometer. It was shown that the prediction was significantly influenced by the crop year. In addition to evaluation of quality indices, the method made it possible to evaluate functional properties of wheat proteins as measured by usual rheological instruments with a screening performance and, to a limited extent, also properties of fermented dough. Using FT-NIR spectra, lower prediction values were generally obtained when compared with NIR spectra. The differences in prediction performance between both types of spectra were related to experimental errors – the lower experimental error, the greater differences.