The effect of different milling procedures on dough mixing parameters of hard red bread wheat

Superior bread-making quality is required before breeding lines can be commercially classified. In South Africa, breeding lines together with a quality standard from five environments must be submitted for quality analysis for three consecutive seasons before such lines can be classified for commercial use. Breeders depend on falling number and mixograph analysis to indicate which breeding lines must be selected for submission. Time availability determines whether whole flour or white flour will be used for this quick screening process. During the classification process, the lines have to adhere to 11 primary quality criteria, which include hectolitre mass, falling number, grain and flour protein content, flour yield, flour colour, farinograph water absorption, alveograph stability/distensibility ratio, alveograph dough strength, loaf volume and corrected loaf volume. The aim of this study was to compare flour obtained from three different milling procedures, by using six selected Mixsmart parameters as indicators of the primary classification criteria for commercial cultivar release, to determine whether faster milling procedures such as a hammer mill or Junior Quadrumat mill will give the same results as the currently used Buhler mill. Seed of ten genotypes from two environments was used. There were sufficient correlations between the Mixsmart parameters and primary quality criteria, for selection of the best potential breeding lines, whether whole flour, white flour from the Junior Quadrumat mill or flour from the Buhler mill was used. Linear discriminant analysis confirmed that no differences existed between the three milling procedures for mixograph analysis as indicator of quality.