Automation of Methods for Cereal Qualification: Development and Validation of Macro- and Micro-Scale Sedimentation-Tests

Today, standardized methods are available for the determination of swelling capacity of gluten (ICC Standard No. 116/1, AACC Methods 56-60 – 56-70). However, till today, the procedures are carried out manually. An automated apparatus is not yet available. On the other hand, there are some fields (breeding programs, basic research programs, etc.), where the amount of sample available for testing is very limited, therefore the necessity of small-scale equipment and methods is unambiguous. Recently, an automated sedimentation tester was developed at our Department in collaboration with a Hungarian industrial partner, Lab-Intern Ltd. The results with the prototype of the apparatus were shown at ICC Conference in Vienna, 2005. In the second phase of this research, the final version of the measuring system was developed for commercialization. This instrument is applicable also for standard- and micro-scale measurements, where the sample requirements are 3.2 g and 0.4 g of flour, respectively. The reshaped architecture and the operation of the equipment are compliant to the requirements of standard procedures. The sedimentation process is followed by a computerized digital imaging system and is evaluated with software. The sensitivity of the imaging system was increased and the evaluation procedure was reformed in the software. Almost all types of sedimentation procedures will be applicable on this equipment. The validation procedures for standard- and micro-scale methods were carried out. Results show that the sedimentation values measured with standard and new methods provided fairly good correlations. Generally, it can be stated, that the new modular apparatus makes for simpler and quicker measurement procedures, automates the evaluation and reduces the uncertainty of results.