Wheat Flour Quality Assessment by Fundamental Non-Linear Rheological Methods: A Critical Review

Wheat quality assessment involves physical, physicochemical, chemical, and sensory characterization of wheat kernels and the resulting wheat flour, dough, and bread. The physical tests conducted on wheat flour dough are mostly based on empirical methods. Empirical methods have been useful in industry and research to relate wheat flour quality to baking performance. However, these methods have the disadvantage of providing data in arbitrary units, which makes the fundamental interpretation of results difficult. Therefore, this review focuses on the use of fundamental rheological methods to determine wheat flour quality in terms of processing performance. During the transition from wheat flour to bread, wheat flour dough is mostly exposed to large deformations, and the quality of wheat flour determines its response to these large deformations and its baking quality. For this reason, this review only focuses on the application of fundamental rheological tests that are conducted in the non-linear viscoelastic region where wheat flour dough experiences large deformations.