Volumetric PTV For Fermenting Bread Dough Visualized By Micro X-Ray Computed Tomography

Abstract

To elucidate the relationship between the formation of internal structures and changes in viscoelastic properties for improving the quality stability of porous and heterogeneous materials, we focused on bread dough that forms an internal bubble structure through yeast metabolism. Specifically, we conducted a time-series measurement of the internal structure and viscoelastic properties during fermentation, particularly in the heterogeneous condition when additives are mixed into the homogeneous dough. We performed a time-lapse imaging using a digital camera to investigate the inflation volume and rate of fermenting bread dough. We used X-ray CT to visualize the internal bubble structure during the fermenting process and evaluated the changes in viscoelastic properties using a dynamic mechanical analysis. The results indicated that the addition of raisins to the bread dough negatively affected its inflation, made the bubble structure of the dough near the raisins larger and coarsened, and altered the viscoelastic properties.