Studies on heat stabilized wheat germ and its influence on rheological characteristics of dough

Wheat germ, a nutrient dense by-product has a
very poor shelf life. In order to improve its keeping quality,
so that it can be used into different products, various heat
treatments were tried and studied to investigate their influence
on proximate composition as well as on the rheological
characteristics of wheat flour dough. Different heat treatments
have shown insignificant effect on proximate composition
of wheat germ. Retention of vitamin E was greater
in steamed and dried germ. Except for fluidized bed dried
germ, all the heat treatments employed completely inactivated
the lipase enzyme, whereas the lipoxygenase enzyme
was inactivated to an extent of 80–92%. Quality evaluation
of germ samples during 60 days storage indicated that
steamed and dried germ retained the sensory attributes to
a greater extent. Rheological study of wheat flour blends
with germ upto 20%, showedmarginal increase inwater absorption
and over-pressure values. However incorporation
of treated wheat germ caused dough weakening in terms of
reduction in dough stability and rupture at abscissa values.