Optimization of the production parameters for bread rolls with the Nelder–Mead simplex method

Abstract

In this contribution an efficient method for the optimization of production parameters for bread rolls is presented. The optimization was carried out for a new oven type starting with the normal recipe for bread rolls. The new oven type was coated with a ceramic that increased the infrared radiation during the baking process. The baking process is therefore accelerated and the production parameters had to be adjusted once more. The process parameters proofing time and the baking temperature were optimized. The quality criterion was defined by the characteristics of bread rolls obtained from the conventional oven using the specific volume, the baking loss, the colour saturation, crumb firmness as well as the elasticity. The Nelder–Mead simplex method led within 11 experiments to an optimal baking result. The optimization was terminated when the values for the confidence interval of the objective function include zero. The optimal processing parameters for the bread rolls were a proofing time of 117min and the baking temperature of 215°C for 16min. The simplex method according to Nelder–Mead lead to promising results for production parameters of bread rolls in a new oven system.