Seventy years of research into breadmaking quality

In the 1940s, research by Baker established fundamental aspects of the breadmaking process while Finney showed that differences of quality resided in the gluten proteins of flour. Different lipid components have been found to affect loaf volume and texture but variation in lipid composition of current wheat varieties does not account for significant quality differences. Fundamental studies by Tipples and Kilborn showed that optimum dough development had two requirements – a critical mixing intensity and a critical amount of imparted energy. Expansion of a fermenting dough depends on two stabilizing mechanisms resulting from the gluten/starch matrix and the liquid lamellae surrounding the gas bubbles. In the 1970s, wheat cultivars were developed with poor baking properties, related to a dearth of insoluble protein, shown to comprise glutenins of large molecular size. Research by Payne and co-workers revealed that dough strength could be related to glutenin subunits and the genes controlling their synthesis. This has opened up new directions for determining composition-quality relationships and, in turn, has enabled strategies to be devised for improving quality based on wheat genetic composition.