Valutazione della texture di grissini attraverso il test di flessione a tre punti

Texture of bread sticks by wheat and whole wheat flour was analyzed by three point bending test with an Instron UTM using different crosshead speeds (3.3 x 10 -4 , 8.3 x 10 -4 , 1.7 x 10 -3 and 8.3 x 10 -3 m/s), and distances between the support beams (0.04 and 0.10 m). Hardness (N) and brittleness (kN/m) were the parameters measured. The increase of the crosshead speed and distance between the support beams resulted in a decrease for both the parameters. For the hardness no differences were detected between the types of bread sticks. Instead, they were discriminated for the brittleness when the distance between the supporting beams was 0.10 m, the bread sticks by whole wheat flour being more deformable and, as a consequence, less brittle. The use of low crosshead speeds yielded less variability in the results and seemed to be advisable.