Affiliation: | 1. Department of Food Science and Technology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Department of Research and Development, Zarkam Company, Zar Industrial and Research Group, Hashtgerd, Iran Contribution: Conceptualization (lead), Data curation (lead), Formal analysis (lead), Investigation (equal), Methodology (equal), Writing - original draft (lead);2. Department of Research and Development, Zarkam Company, Zar Industrial and Research Group, Hashtgerd, Iran Department of Food Science, Engineering and Technology, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran Contribution: Formal analysis (equal), Investigation (equal), Methodology (equal);3. Department of Research and Development, Zarkam Company, Zar Industrial and Research Group, Hashtgerd, Iran Department of Food Science and Technology, Varamin-Pishva Branch, Islamic Azad University, Varamin, Iran Contribution: Formal analysis (equal);4. Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC), C/Agustin Escardino, 7, Paterna, Valencia, 46980 Spain;5. Department of Research and Development, Zarkam Company, Zar Industrial and Research Group, Hashtgerd, Iran Contribution: Conceptualization (equal), Funding acquisition (lead), Writing - review & editing (supporting) |
Abstract: | The aim of the study was to evaluate the physical and microstructural characteristics of crackers baked in four different industrial baking ovens (indirect radiation-cyclotherm, indirect convection, hybrid and industrial tunnel-ITO). Indirect convection and cyclotherm ovens provide the highest (5685.43 ± 51 W m−2) and the lowest (4860 ± 38.87 W m−2) amount of heat flux, respectively. Despite the amount of heat flux, indirect convection led to crackers with the highest moisture (7.86% vs. 4.82% in clyclotherm) and specific volume, but the lowest hardness. Cyclotherm resulted in crackers with lower specific volume, surface area, porosity, smooth and regular surface. Conversely, the hybrid and ITO ovens showed closer heat flux, leading to crackers with similar moisture content, texture parameters, specific volume, browning and inner porosity. Overall results show the potential of baking using different ovens for modifying the quality parameters of the crackers. |