Wheat flour quality evaluation from the baker’s perspective: comparative assessment of 18 analytical methods

In this study, we sourced 37 commercial flours from 14 mills based on 7 countries and analysed them with a total of 18 methods, generating 90 single analytical values for each flour. The 18 methods were chosen to cover the analytical practice of most European mills and bakery companies, as well as particle charge detection, GlutoPeak and solvent retention capacity as emerging methods. We investigated the relationship between the data from the individual methods, and performed a principal component analysis to describe the structure of the data set and identify the main underlying flour properties. Four principal components accounted for 64.8% of the total variance. They were interpreted as (PC1) starch gelatinization properties, (PC2) hydration properties, (PC3) dough resistance at variable water amount, and (PC4) dough strength at fixed water amount. From the emerging methods, solvent retention capacity (sodium carbonate and water) was highly correlated with PC2, while the GlutoPeak max torque was highly correlated with PC4.