Chemometric Approach to Characterization of Flour Mill Streams: Chemical and Rheological Properties

The aim of the present study was to utilize chemometric methods (the principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis) for monitoring the certain aspects of flour mill streams quality and their interrelation to selected rheological properties. Thirty-seven flour mill streams were separated from industrial mill of 300 t/day capacity. All flour streams were analyzed for ash, protein, wet gluten, and damaged starch content and rheological properties as determined by Brabender Farinograph, Extensograph, and Amylograph. The obtained results indicated that break, sizing, and reduction flour streams exhibited different rheological behavior in relation to a change in protein, wet gluten, ash, and mechanically damaged starch content within the milling passages. Rheological properties of dough during mixing and kneading as well as during extension were different with regard to the technological phase of milling from which they were extracted. The obtained results could be utilized for selection of certain flour streams in production of special-purpose flours.