Digital Re-print - November | December 2010

‘Profiling’ flours and their value to end users

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‘PROFILING’ FLOURS
AND THEIR VALUE TO END USERS
by Charles Loubersac D’hotel, Chopin Technologies SAS, France
F
lour quality control is not an
easy task. Many parameters
have an influence, starting from
the protein (quantity, quality …),
the starch (damaged or not…), the
enzymes (amylases, proteases…)
and many other components.
Chopin Technologies has been working
on the quality control of cereals and flours
for more than 80 years, providing solutions
for cereal chemistry with the help of interna-
tional association such as AACC, ICC.
You may be familiar with the Chopin
Technologies’ Alveo-consistograph, SDmatic
for damaged starch determination, labora-
tory mills for flour (CD1 & CD1 Auto), the
new NIR Infraneo and much more.
The company launched recently the revo-
lutionary ‘Profiler’, based on the Mixolab sys-
tem, that both creates a new scoring system
and inverse the QC as it currently exists by
scoring the raw material in function of prod-
uct end value and the processing consistency
rather than the raw material alone.
Mixolab measures the consistency of the
dough during mixing and submitted to a
gradual increase and decrease of the mixer
temperature.
With just one single test, the operator
has information concerning the protein and
gluten quality (water absorption, dough sta-
bility during mixing, mixing time, strength of
18 | november - december 2010
the dough), but also concerning the starch
(gelatinisation temperature, retrogradation,
diastasic activity …) and some enzymatic
activities (proteases on the first part of the
test, amylases on the second).
This tool is interesting for the all grain-
flour-bread chain thanks to its 50g mixing
bowl. It also gives interesting and fast results
from whole meal flour (obtain by grinding
the wheat).
Pure gluten or pure starch has also been
successfully tested.
Successful testing
After a six years successful life and a
wide acceptance over customers such as
Figure 1: The Profiler software facility
Flour Feature
additives manufacturers, breeders, universi-
ties, industrial bakeries and millers, the
company has improved the software facility
of the device.
The repeatability and reproducibility of
the Mixolab allows users to manage the
three-part software (all included) package
with the device called Mixolab System.
It is composed of the Mixolab Standard
(ICC173), comprehensive tool for the R&D
where the curve interpretation remains
free, but requires cereal chemistry-skilled
users; the Mixolab Simulator, that simulates
the Farinograph® values and the Mixolab
Profiler which is the perfect tool for daily QC
purposes for it helps the millers and bakers
scoring their flours on six very comprehen-
sive indexes.
Fundamental rheology: ‘The
cereal chemistry minded tool’
The Mixolab senses, in real time, the
torque in Nm produced by the dough
between the two mixing blades. All informa-
tion is transmitted to the computer for data
treatment and visualisation.
The Mixolab can work either at constant
hydration or at constant consistency.
For constant consistency, the Chopin
standard target is 1.1Nm: it is adaptable to
other targets as needed. Once the dough is
formed, the device measures its behaviour
Grain &feed millinG technoloGy
Feature Flour
as a function of time, mixing development play with mixing
and temperature. speed (from 55 to
This allows for: 250rpm), modify
• The analysis of the quality of the the target torque,
protein network: hydration, stabil- etc. This in order
ity, elasticity, mixing power to be the closest of
• The analysis of starch behav- industrial use condi-
iour: gelatinisation and gelation tions of his flour.
temperatures, modification of The Mixolab is
consistency by additives, etc very simple to use.
• The analysis of enzymatic activity: The analysis is com-
proteolitic, amylasic and other pletely automated.
Figure 2
In order to be assured of getting a good The only steps are
analysis of temperature influence on the to weigh the flour,
dough, a sensor is located at the dough/ put it in the dough mixer and position the necessary amount of water for hydration and
mixer interface (dough temperature): this water injector. The device is completely injects it.
complements the information given by a driven from a PC thanks to user-friendly A conrtol menu allows the adjustment
second temperature sensor situated near the software working on Windows 98, 2000, NT, and monitoring of all the Mixolab features
heating element (mixer temperature). XP, Vista, 7. It is
Dough development: Starting at constant possible to get all
temperature, the beginning of the test checks
the water absorption level of flours and
measures the characteristics of dough during
the results under
Excel sheets.
The Mixolab
mixing: stability, elasticity, water absorption design has been
Protein breakdown: As the dough tempera- optimised in
ture increases, the consistency decreases. order to guaranty
This part of the curve shows that the weak- to the end-user
ening depends on protein/gluten quality maximum safety.
Starch gelatinisation: When a certain tem- Before each test,
perature is reached, starch gelatinization the Mixolab checks
begins. Additives can influence this gelati- that all test condi-
nization temperature and/or the maximum tions are respected.
consistency of gelatinized flour Once all set values
Measure of amylase activity: The consist- are reached, the
ency value at the end of heating depends on system takes the +1 515-254-1260 • Email: ascott@insta-pro.com • www.insta-pro.com
the naturally occurring and/or added amylase
activity
Cooling the dough down,
beginning of starch gelling:
When cooling, starch retro-
grades and the product con-
sistency increases. Some addi-
tives have an effect on this
phenomenon and can modify
its behaviour. These additives
can help avoid early staling, and
increase the softness of the end
product, and their effect can be
measured
The Mixolab is very flexible
and can adapt itself to every
single problematics.
The user can choose
between the Chopin protocol
proposed as a standard method
or can create its own test. In
this last case, he will be able to
set different temperature cycles,
Grain &feed millinG technoloGy november - december 2010 | 19

“The revolutionary Profiler creates a new scoring system
raw material in its function at the end product and the
and particularly calibration of the different
sensors: temperature, torque, etc.
The Mixolab is particularly adapted for
a wide range of applications in Research
laboratories.
Functional rheology
Functional rheology is the ultimate tool
for Industrial baker.
The cereal chemistry-minded tool trans-
lates into a daily use, routine and functional
control all the flours tested. This is typically
the kind of requirement industrial bakers,
having various suppliers, are asking for. This
what Chopin technology achieved with its
software facility on the Mixolab. Millers, sup-
pliers of bakeries, are giving quality param-
eters, such as protein, ash, starch damage,
sedimentation, Hagberg, water absorption
(from the Farinograph) or even Alveograph
values such as W&P/L, that most of the time
complies with bakers requirements.
Still, some trouble shooting is possible.
In a world where customers requirements
are moving fast, new products developments
are a critical competitive point for industrial
bakers who are following new trends such
as gluten-free, high-fiber, digestibility, whole
grain, enriched flours etc.
Figure 3: The
Mixolab device
20 | november - december 2010
and inverses the QC as it exists actually. It scores the
process itself rather than just the raw material”
However, in the end, few tools are avail-
able that help them to assess not just the qual-
ity but the functionality of their flours as well.
Trouble shooting with the
Profiler
Then there is the Profiler on the Mixolab.
The quality parameters mentioned above
are most of the time focusing on gluten,
few are considering the starch fraction. Most
the trouble shooting is coming from starch
‘miscontrol’. For example, if you just consider
the water absorption you can obtain using
common rheological methods, they don’t
translate precisely into what is the actual
water absorption in an industrial mixer.
Again, Mixolab is measuring the consist-
ency on a dough, a real dough, not a slurry
or batter, where interaction between gluten
and starch are critical with a limited amount
of water available, where the quality of the
gluten can influence the starch behaviour
during the warming phase.
This is actually a very good way to mimic
the actual process.
And this is the reason why the Mixolab is
so valuable for bakers, as there is no other
such device that is close to their processes.
The standard curve from the Mixolab
requires a pretty good knowledge of dough
rheology; the baker needs fast and simple
method in one test.
The aim of the
Profiler is to trans-
late this raw curve
into a comprehen-
sive and under-
standable test.
Six indexes are
ranked from 0 to
9 (see Figure 2), an
absorption index, a
mixing index, a gluten
quality index, a viscosity
Flour Feature
index, an amylases index and a retrograda-
tion index.
Flour tested shall be identified such as, for
example, 352-345. This Index, thanks to the
reproducibility and the repeatability of the
device, becomes the flour fingerprint.
Designing your own profiles
Based on that, the bakers will be able to
design their own profiles for each of their
end products with tolerances values on the
Chopin Index.
They need, like a calibration, to process
on the Mixolab 12 to 20 samples of well
performing flours for a dedicated end prod-
uct. That includes the process used for that
end product. They will design, like this, the
Profiler they need.
From that preliminary work you shall be
able to ensure 100 percent consistency in
your production line. As soon as you have
the profile, you can make it easy, whatever
the skills of the user: you know if the flour is
“in” the Profile or “out”. If in, no worries, if
out, the profiler shows where the problem
comes from, on which index and how it can
be fixed with your supplier.
Indeed, that provides the bakers, in one
single test, a better understanding, avoid
trouble shootings from arising and allow
communications with suppliers to be accu-
rate and precise.
The revolutionary Profiler creates a new
scoring system and inverses the QC as it exists
actually. It scores the raw material in its function
at the end product and the process itself rather
than just the raw material.
More inforMation:
Chopin Technologies
20 avenue Marcelin Berthelot
Villeneuve-la-Garenne
Cedex, 92396 France
Website: www.chopin.fr
Grain &feed millinG technoloGy
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