Cereal Chem 67:405-412   |  VIEW ARTICLE

The Spaghetti-Making Quality of Commercial Durum Wheat Samples with Variable Alpha- Amylase Activity.

J. E. Dexter, R. R. Matsuo, and J. E. Kruger. Copyright 1990 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Rail carlots of Canadian durum wheat unloaded at terminal elevators during the 1985-1986 crop year were screened for falling number (FN) range of 60 to 520 sec at constant wheat protein content. Semolina milling performance and gluten strength of the composites were not related to FN. Semolina FN was highly correlated to wheat FN despite an alpha-amylase activity of semolina because the semolina dispersed poorly. However, when semolina was reduced into flour prior to performing the amylograph, amylograph mobility was highly correlated to semolina alpha-amylase activity. Whether dried at 39 or 70 C, the most highly sprouted sample (wheat falling number 60 sec) exhibited slight checking, which became more pronounced following three months' storage. None of the other samples, including 12 with wheat FN below 150 sec, exhibited checking. Cooked spaghetti stickiness, firmness, and resilience were not related to semolina alpha-amylase activity. A slight increase in cooking loss was apparent for samples with wheat FN below 150 sec, but the effect was too small to be of practical importance. There was no evidence that high alpha-amylase activity was detrimental to spaghetti storage stability as measured by strand strength and spaghetti cooking quality.