The importance of wheat conditioning in the production of wholemeal flours

Abstract

<p>The grinding technique evolved along with the development of mankind and today it has become a real industry. The need to diversify flour assortments has raised the performance of the milling industry and, more than that, the products obtained are of superior quality due to the new machines and techniques for conditioning and grinding. By conditioning we mean the treatment of wheat with water or water and heat. It can be said that, among the technological operations of preparing wheat for mills, conditioning is the one that most influences the technological process of mills, the degree of extraction, the content of mineral substances of the flour, the separation of the germs and implicitly the baking properties of the flour. The essential parameters taken into account in this stage are the moisture content and the degree of hardness of the wheat grain. When determining the degree of extraction, the hectoliter weight has the major impact. Normally, an extraction of over 95% is sought when we talk about wholemeal flours. With the latest generation machines and their control with the help of new technology, 100% wholemeal wheat flours are obtained. The degree of extraction also influences the physico-chemical parameters of the flour and, of course, the ash content. Enzymatic activity of flour depends on the degree of extraction,  and wholemeal flour is richer in enzymes than white flour. This difference is primarily due to the distribution of non-uniform enzymes in the wheat grain, starting from the core of the wheat grain to its periphery. Wholemeal flour contains significant amounts of bran and germs – the finer the bran, the darker the color of the flour – so it is important that the bran particles are larger and rarer for the flour obtained from the endosperm to express its characteristics in a meaningful way in the finished product.</p>