Milling and Baking Quality of Low Phytic Acid Wheat

Low phytic acid (LPA) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one approach to improving nutritional quality of wheat by reducing the major storage form of phosphorus and increasing the level of inorganic phosphorus, which is more readily absorbed by humans and other monogastric animals. Milling and baking quality evaluations were conducted on hard red, hard white, and soft white spring wheat grain from field trials to evaluate the effects of the LPA genotype on the end-use quality of wheat. In hard wheat backgrounds, the LPA genotypes were not associated with detrimental effects on flour protein concentration, dough mixing properties, or bread loaf volume. LPA wheats had consistent, substantial increases (up to 0.93 g kg 21 ) in flour ash concentration relative to wild-type (WT) wheats. Higher flour ash in WT wheats is often a sign of higher aluerone and bran fragments which are visually evident in dulling of Asian noodles color. However, initial alkaline noodle brightness (L* 5 86.8–87.5) from hard white LPA flours was at least as high as from hard white wild-type flours (L* 5 86.1–87.9). LPA genotypes have demonstrated a significant redistribution of minerals from the bran to the endosperm; this redistribution of minerals most likely caused the increase in flour ash rather than greater partitioning of bran into the flour. In the soft wheat background, LPA genotypes had greater sodium carbonate and sucrose SRC (31 and 43 g kg 21 greater than wild type, respectively), suggesting that LPA wheats milled with greater apparent starch damage and/or pentosan content than WT sib lines.