Staling of white wheat bread crumb and effect of maltogenic α-amylases. Part 3: Spatial evolution of bread staling with time by near infrared hyperspectral imaging.

This paper explores how the staling of white bread affects the behavior of the whole crumb surface and how that mechanism is interrupted/changed by the addition of maltogenic α-amylases. This is done using near infrared hyperspectral imaging, machine learning methodologies and the knowledge acquired in the previous two manuscripts. Methods like principal component analysis and multivariate curve resolution demonstrate how the constituents of the bread being stored (for 21 days) evolve differently depending on the presence/absence of maltogenic α-amylases and also which parts of the crumb are primarily exposed to changes.

Staling of white wheat bread crumb and effect of maltogenic α-amylases. Part 2: Monitoring the staling process by using near infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics.

This second paper provides chemical insight of the different phenomena occurring in bread during storage with and without anti-staling enzymes by using near infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics. The target, thus, is three-fold: (1) To monitor the staling process in the top, middle and bottom parts of the white bread loaf by near infrared spectroscopy and to extract chemical information of the different chemical mechanisms occurring in the staling process; (2) to assess the correlation between the near infrared spectroscopy and spatial texture profile analysis in terms of hardness, and (3) to demonstrate the anti-staling effect of the enzymes by showing a collapse of the correlation between near infrared (NIR) spectra and hardness as measured by texture analysis. It is found that NIR spectroscopy in combination with chemometrics (Partial Least Squares Regression) can predict the hardness development of the control bread.