Impact of wheat flour composition on dough properties: Focus on the minor components

Abstract

In bread-making, various quality criteria describe dough behaviour, but their determinants and relationship to flour composition remain unclear. This study examined 282 wheat bread flour samples representative of French wheat-growing conditions that were used to address this issue using statistical modelling. The quality criteria analysed include alveograph variables—elasticity index (Ie), baking strength (W), tenacity (P), extensibility (L), and the tenacity-to-extensibility ratio (P/L)—as well as quantitative variables from the bread-making test, such as bread volume (BV) and dough elongation at shaping (DE). An in-depth biochemical characterisation of the flour samples was performed, measuring proteins, starch, lipids and arabinoxylans. A model selection approach based on the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) and the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) was applied to identify the key determinants of these quality criteria, integrating the influence of composition variables on water absorption. Results indicate that farinograph water absorption significantly influences W and P, but not Ie and DE, which are more strongly determined by gluten-related variables. Notably, arabinoxylans impact all quality criteria, while lipids significantly affect W and DE. Finally, our results revealed a strong dependency between Ie and dough elongation under French bread-making conditions.