An Initiative to Clean Label: Can We Replace Dough Strengtheners In Bread Formulation

Dough strengtheners are the most common and largest group of chemicals used in bread formulations. This study evaluated the capability of hard red spring (HRS) wheat flour to replace commercial dough strengtheners in bread production. Doughs were prepared by blending different percentages (10%, 20%, 30% and 40%) of four different HRS wheat flours with hard red winter (HRW) wheat flour. In addition, doughs were prepared by adding ten commercially available additives with HRW wheat flour to compare the dough strengthening ability of HRS wheat flour. All the HRS wheat flour blends had significantly (p<0.05) strong dough rheological characteristics than most of the additives. The 40% blends of HRS wheat cultivar Glenn and Linkert had better bread making quality than other blends and all the additives. The SE-HPLC unextractable protein fractions of these two cultivars also showed a better correlation with bread making properties than all the additives.