Effects of Carasau Dough Composition on the Microwave Dielectric Spectra up to 20 GHz

Abstract

Carasau bread is a traditional product from Sardinia (IT). This flat bread is experiencing industrial advancement, through automation, and has great market potential. However, there is lack of understanding of how the composition (water content, salt, and yeast concentration) affects the product quality. In this work, a microwave dielectric spectroscopy study is performed to investigate how the composition of Carasau bread doughs influences the spectra of this food product up to 20 GHz. A third-order Cole–Cole model was used for the physical and quantitative understanding of the electromagnetic properties of this food product. Then, it has been studied how salt, yeast, and water variations affected the model parameters. This work could pave the route to the development of non-destructive, contactless microwave sensors for Carasau bread quality assessment.