Physicochemical and microstructure analysis of flour mill streams and milled products.

Quality of mill streams is very important for
obtaining specialty flour for specific application. In order to
have clear picture of distribution of major constituents in the
flour mill streams during milling of wheat, the physicochemical
and microstructure characteristics of flour mill streams
and milled products were studied from the pilot roller flour
mill. The result showed wide variation in moisture content,
ash (0.42 % to 7.12 %), dry gluten (7.95 % to 9.62 %),
damaged starch (4.42 % to 8.10 %), falling number (258 to
372), and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) sedimentation
values (41 ml to 61 ml) in different flour mill streams and
milled products. Variation in the farinograph water absorption
(FWA) was also observed in the flour mill streams ranging
from 53.07 % to 62.0 %. Scanning electron microscopic
(SEM) images showed that straight run flour (SRF) preserved
some characteristics of intact endosperm and consisted of
aggregates of broken protein matrix and starch granules embedded
in it. In break streams, higher aggregates of starch and
protein matrix than the single unaggregated granules were
seen and starch granules showed less degree of structural
deformation when compared to reduction streams.