Ultrasonic analysis to discriminate bread dough of different types of flour

Many varieties of bread are prepared using flour coming from wheat. However, there are other types of flours milled from rice, legumes and some fruits and vegetables that are also suitable for baking purposes, used alone or in combination with wheat flour. The type of flour employed strongly influences the dough consistency, which is a relevant property for determining the dough potential for breadmaking purposes. Traditional methods for dough testing are relatively expensive, time-consuming, off-line and often require skilled operators. In this work, ultrasonic analysis are performed in order to obtain acoustic properties of bread dough samples prepared using two different types of flour, wheat flour and rice flour. The dough acoustic properties can be related to its viscoelastic characteristics, which in turn determine the dough feasibility for baking. The main advantages of the ultrasonic dough testing can be, among others, its low cost, fast, hygienic and on-line performance. The obtained results point out the potential of the ultrasonic analysis to discriminate doughs of different types of flour.