QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF CANADIAN HARD WHITE SPRING WHEAT

Quality characteristics of five pilot-scale milled Canadian hard white spring wheats were compared to a No.1 grade commercial composite Canada Western Red Spring (1CWRS) wheat. One metric ton of samples was milled on the Canadian International Grains Institute pilot Buhler mill (Buhler AG, Uzwil, Switzerland) into straight-grade (SG), 85% and whole wheat flours. At the SG extraction level, the white wheats with their lighter colored seed coats had improved milling yields (up to 2.6%) and lower ash (0.01–0.09%) than the 1CWRS control wheat. Majority of white wheat flours had higher protein contents than the 1CWRS control flours for all flour extractions. Based on dough rheological properties of the flours, three of the white wheats (Kanata, Snowbird and BW 275) were equal to or better than the red 1CWRS control for nearly all farinograph and mixograph parameters at all flour extractions other than farinograph absorption. Two of the white wheat lines (RL 4863 and RL 4858) had excessively weak and overly strong dough properties, respectively. Evaluation of pan bread, bagels and tortillas showed that white wheats generally produced end-products that were comparable or superior to 1CWRS and that their most significantly positive quality compared to 1CWRS was their substantially lighter colored end-products.