Cereal Chem 72:128-131  |  VIEW ARTICLE

NOTE: Effect of Bleaching on Durum Wheat and Spaghetti Quality.

A. Debbouz, W. J. Pitz, W. R. Moore, and B. L. D'Appolonia. Copyright 1995 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Durum wheat samples bleached by adverse weather conditions during the 1992 harvest were evaluated for their physicochemical characteristics and their pasta quality. Two sets of wheat samples were tested. The first set, which consisted of 173 samples, was divided into four groups (sound, sound but nonvitreous, bleached, and severely weather-damaged). Because of their small size, these samples were composited for milling and pasta processing. The second set included five large wheat samples, also from the 1992 crop year. These samples were approximately half bleached and half sound, and each sample was manually sorted into sound and bleached fractions. The bleached wheat from both sample sets showed lower test weight and 1,000-kernel weight than the sound wheat. The falling number decreased slightly, but not significantly; while the vitreousness, protein, ash, and hardness values were nearly the same as those obtained for the sound wheat. The physicochemical characteristics of the severely weather-damaged wheat were adversely affected, except for gluten strength. The nonvitreous and the severely weather-damaged wheat showed a decrease in semolina extraction, semolina protein, and wet gluten. Minor bleaching, involving only the discoloration of the kernel seed coat, did not affect the semolina properties or the spaghetti color and cooking quality.