Ultrasonic Regulation of Wheat Flour Product Quality: Mechanisms, Multi-Scale Effects, and Synergistic Technologies

Flour products are staple foods worldwide, and the industry demands green and efficient processing technologies to address quality defects in traditional production. As a nonthermal physical processing technology, ultrasound has emerged as a promising solution for flour product quality regulation via cavitation, mechanical, and mild thermal effects. This paper systematically elucidates the multi-scale regulatory mechanism of ultrasound on flour product quality, revealing its cascade regulation pathway from molecular structure to macroscopic quality: At the molecular level, ultrasound realizes dynamic water redistribution, reconstructs gluten protein conformation, and modifies starch crystalline structure; at the micro level, it strengthens protein-starch interfacial interactions and optimizes dough colloidal system structure; macroscopically, it improves dough rheological and textural properties, and achieves bidirectional precision regulation of fermentation kinetics based on power density gradients. The paper also elaborates on the synergistic mechanisms and quality improvement effects of ultrasonic composite technologies combined with high pressure, microwave, enzymatic treatment, and freezing, clarifying that ultrasound acts as a structural sensitizer and process enhancer in composite systems. Current research faces bottlenecks such as insufficient real-time molecular characterization, prominent industrial scaling effects, and preliminary research on healthy flour products. This review provides theoretical support and technical reference for the green, precise, and intelligent processing of flour products, and lays a foundation for the high-quality development of the flour product industry.