Writing in LWT – Food Science and Technology​ journal, Starr et al.​ said volume and texture were the two main quality parameters to consumer acceptance in bread – “…however bread aroma is increasingly receiving attention from consumers and producers”, ​they said.

The team from the University of Copenhagen said there had been limited research on how different wheat varieties impacted bread flavor and they said sensory studies normally focused on bread freshness and consumer perception.

However, they found differed wheat varieties influenced the final flavor and odor in baked bread.

“This knowledge is important to the baking industry and to plant breeders as wheat aroma could possibly become a future quality parameter in breeding,”​ they said.

Method and results​

The scientists conducted sensory evaluations on wheat-flour porridge and baked-bread samples made from wheat varieties with known odor and flavor variations. They analyzed 24 wheat varieties for porridge and narrowed it down to eight for bread before comparing results. Starr et al. said porridge provided a good comparison to bread as it tender to release more flavors and odors from the wheat.

An experienced sensory panel of 11 people found variations among the wheat varieties and identified five odor and nine flavor descriptors in the bread and porridge samples.

Wheat bran was mainly characterized with the descriptors ‘malt’, ‘oat-porridge ‘, ‘øllebrød’, ‘cocoa’ and ‘grain’, while wheat endosperm was associated with the descriptors ‘maize’, ‘bean shoots’, ‘chamomile’, ‘umani’ and ‘fresh grass’.

“Bread made from low-extraction flour was found to be significantly differentiated for five odor and six flavor descriptors between bread samples made from four different wheat varieties. This shows that dour/flavor variation also occurs in plain white bread depending on the variety of wheat used as flour,”​ wrote the researchers.

Source:​

LWT - Food Science and Technology, Vol. 63, Issue 1, September 2015, Pages 590–598

doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2015.03.048​

‘Aroma of wheat porridge and bread-crumb is influenced by the wheat variety’

Authors: G. Starr, Å.S. Hansen, M.A. Petersen, W.L.P. Bredie