OPTIMIZATION OF GLUTEN PEAK TESTER: A STATISTICAL APPROACH

ABSTRACT

Response surface methodology was applied to develop a standard method for gluten peak tester. Four variables – flour weight, temperature, solvent and rpm – were varied as per the center composite design, and the responses – torque and peak maximum time – were analyzed. Flour–solvent interaction was observed to be the most significant factor impacting the peak torque for whole meal and hard wheat flours while flour (g) and rpm were the most significant for soft wheat flour and insignificant for whole meal flour. The setting 8.5 g flour, 9.5 g solvent (0.5 M CaCl₂), 34C temperature and 1,900 rpm was obtained as the standard setting applicable to whole meal as well as refined flours from soft and hard wheats.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Gluten quality is an important criterion to predict flour performance in cereal processing industry. The gluten peak tester has been recently introduced as a sensitive and rapid way of testing wheat gluten quality. The current research was designed to optimize the gluten peak tester to work with wheat varieties with a wide range of protein contents so as to lay a baseline for method development to assess gluten quality of different wheat varieties/lines within a short time span with minimum sample requirements which is very critical for the breeding industry.