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Moisture plays an important role in processing wheat grain into flour, from proper grain tempering to flour stability. The moisture properties of dry grain, tempered grain, and finished flour are currently tracked using moisture content. However, stability factors such as microbial growth and chemical stability are better correlated to water activity rather than moisture content. To determine whether water activity could be utilized as a more effective specification for wheat flour production, the water activity and moisture sorption properties of dry grain, tempered grain, farina, and flour were determined. Results showed the water activity of dry grain was sufficiently low for long-term stability. Dynamic isotherms of dry grain indicated critical water activity in which the seed coat lost its resistance to water penetration, which corresponded to the water activity of tempered wheat. Finally, the water activity of finished flour and farina typically was below the critical level for mold growth. Based on...

Compared with common (“bread”) wheat, durum wheat often has an equal or better grain yield under heat and drought stress conditions. Considerable attention worldwide is being focused on how climate change may increase the occurrence of heat and drought while water resources continue to shrink. Consequently, it would be reasonable to increase durum wheat production. However, although production of durum wheat is not limited by its agronomics, it is limited, in part, by its narrow range of culinary end-use product applications, i.e., primarily pastas. To overcome the end-use quality constraints imposed by the very hard kernel texture of durum wheat, the Pina and Pinb genes from bread wheat have been successfully transferred into durum wheat by transferring a short piece of puroindoline gene-bearing chromosome 5D using non-GM means. In theory, a broader, more diverse range of end uses for durum wheat should drive consumer demand and, hence, production. Some of the grain, flour, and baking properties of soft ...