Soft Wheat
Soft wheat flour is the main food ingredient in baked goods made from batters such as cakes, cookies, and biscuits. It is produced by separating the wheat kernel into its three parts: bran (the outer protective covering), germ (the new plant embryo), and endosperm (the tissue that provides nutrients to the germ). Endosperm is the part of the wheat kernel that is finely milled into wheat flour.
Flour millers can monitor flour extraction efficiency and flour quality by tracking the moisture, protein, and ash content during the process analysis. Near Infrared (NIR) technology is used by flour millers for food quality control and to meet the demands of their customers without giving away valuable product. Most soft wheat flour end users have rigid flour specifications depending upon the finished product. Flour millers must meet the demands of their customers without giving away valuable product. The ash content in flour is extremely important because it indicates the purity of the flour. The higher the ash content, the less endosperm / bran separation during the milling process of this agricultural product.
The SpectraStar is capable of accurately measuring moisture, protein, and ash in soft wheat flour. Approved wet chemistry methods for these parameters can take up to 16 hours to complete the process analysis. Flour millers rely on the speed of NIR technology to effectively gauge their process, bin the flour properly, and release the flour to their customers.
Traditional discrete filter NIR spectrometers are highly sensitive to particle size variations in flour. This sensitivity shows up as a bias between different flour grades and forces the laboratory technician to maintain separate product channels. Maintaining separate soft wheat flour channels is not necessary when analyzing samples on the SpectraStar. Scanning monochromator technology is less sensitive to particle size variation which improves overall NIR accuracy, especially when analyzing for ash content.
Approximately 1400 soft wheat flour samples currently reside in the Unity SpectraStar database. These samples were collected over five crop years at multiple locations across North America. The standard powder cup is adequate for this application. The resulting calibrations have proved to be accurate and reliable when validated with different soft wheat flour grades. Additionally, the calibrations are robust against small milling variations. Thus, laboratory technicians are adjusting the bias less frequently than with their old discreet filter NIR equipment.
SpectraStar Soft Wheat Flour Statistics
Parameter |
Range |
R2 |
SECV |
Moisture |
10-15% |
0.94 |
0.15 |
Protein |
6-12% |
0.98 |
0.17 |
Ash |
0.2-0.6% |
0.91 |
0.02 |