Comparison of physiochemical properties and colour of wheat flour

Abstract

The present work was planned to investigate the influence of milling speed, packaging material and variety on quality parameters of wheat flour during storage. The wheat grains of two varieties (HD3086 and PBW725) were milled at different speeds of 80, 125 and 1440 rpm and the flours were analyzed for milling parameters and proximate composition. The samples were packed in high density polyethylene, low density polyethylene, ethylene vinyl alcohol/ polyethylene multilayer bags, vacuum packaged in laminated aluminium bags and stored at ambient conditions for 90 days. Free fatty acid, moisture and color parameters were recorded during storage. The proximate composition of samples decreased significantly (p≤ 0.05) during milling, but this decrease was more pronounced at commercial milling speed of 1440 rpm as compared to milling in domestic mill at 80 and 125 rpm. The change in moisture, free fatty acid and color was observed to be significantly lower in flour obtained from HD3086 wheat variety at 80 rpm, vacuum packed in laminated aluminium bags after 90 days of storage. Thus, low speed milling and vacuum packaging or ordinary packaging in multilayer bags can be suggested as a suitable solution for maintaing quality of wheat flour for longer duration.