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Relationships Between Small-Scale Wheat Quality Assays and Commercial Test Bakes¹

¹Joint contribution of the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, and the Department of Agronomy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as Journal Series Paper No. 12270. Mention of firm names or trade products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the USDA or the University of Nebraska over other firms or products not mentioned. ²USDA-ARS, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583. ³Corresponding author. E-mail: agro100@unlvm.unl.edu Fax: 402-472-4020. ⁴USDA-ARS, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND. ⁵Department of Agronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE. ⁶American Institute of Baking, Manhattan, KS. ⁷Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, MO. ⁸The Earthgrains Co, St. Louis, MO. Present address: Interstate Brands, Kansas City, MO.

Typical commercial bakeries in the United States are highly mechanized, mass-production facilities. U.S. hard wheat breeding programs use small-scale physical dough testing and pup loaf bake procedures to identify and select improved quality genotypes. The accuracy of such approaches in the prediction of commercial-scale quality performance is poorly understood. Samples from six hard red winter wheat cultivars grown in 11 locations over three harvest years were used to correlate grain hardness, small-scale test bakes, mixograph variables, and various measures of flour protein composition with quality assessments from commercial test laboratories. Samples were milled on both pilot- and small-scale mills. Protein content and 100-g pup loaf volume were more often significantly correlated with commercial test bake variables than all other small-scale variables. Stepwise multiple regression models explained, on average, ≈40% of the variation in commercial test bake procedures. Mixograph properties, pup loaf volumes and absorption, and flour protein content were the most frequent variables identified in model development. Pup loaf bake results on pilot- and small-scale milled flours were highly correlated. Differences in milling technology do not appear to be a significant source of error in relating small-scale test bakes to commercial quality.