Analysis of Flour & Milling Products
FT-NIR Spectroscopy for Flour & Milling Analysis
Cereals are the cornerstone of the daily nutrition for most people around the world. The Flour & Milling industry plays an essential part in turning cereals into flours for a wide variety of baked goods from bread to cake.
The specifications for wheat and flour often require specialized and time consuming testing to determine how flour will perform during processing.
Bruker offers solutions for the Flour & Milling industry for the analysis of wheat, various flour types as well as co-products based on FT-NIR Spectroscopy - from small, easy-to-use benchtop spectrometers to complete online monitoring systems.
Ready to use calibration packages give you results in seconds and are a highly cost-effective solution compared to conventional testing methods.
Application Areas
It is essential to verify the grade as well as the quality of wheat before forwarding it to the milling process. This way, the maximum yield and the correct quality of flour can be achieved. Parameters like moisture, protein, ash and wet gluten content can be monitored with FT-NIR spectroscopy within seconds.
Knowing the moisture content is essential for millers in order to adjust the wheat to a standard level before milling. The protein content is a key specification for flour producers as it influences many processing properties, like water absorption or gluten strength. The ash content in wheat is an indication of the yield to be expected during the milling process.
Adding water to wheat before milling helps producing consistent, high quality finished flours. Utilizing FT-NIR spectroscopy helps you to monitor the moisture content of the wheat in order to optimize the conditioning step and addition of water.
If a wheat flour is suitable for baking purposes and which process adjustments need to be made, is traditionally assessed by an array of rheological and physical/chemical testing. Most of these labor intensive tests like protein content, Alveograph or Extensograph testing can be substituted by FT-NIR with just one measurement, leading to substantial cost reductions and process improvements. Moreover, due to the speed of FT-NIR, a high sample throughput can be achieved.
Video Library
