Rheological behavior and microstructure of developed and undeveloped wheat dough

A study was conducted to investigate the role of shear and extensional deformation on wheat dough development. Undeveloped dough samples were strained in controlled shear and extensional flow between parallel plate sensors in a Haake RS100 rheometer. After deformation, samples were prepared for structure evaluation using scanning electron microscopy, or rheological testing.;Micrographs of wheat dough were subjected to numerical digital image processing to quantify image texture related to protein development. These results were compared to dynamic rheological properties to evaluate the influence of deformation on microstructure. The viscoelastic behavior of wheat dough showed that developed dough had the greatest amount of structure formation, followed by extensionally strained and shear strained samples, respectively. Undeveloped dough showed the lowest levels of structure development and viscoelastic moduli. Image analysis results were statistically different between developed and undeveloped samples; however, results were not significantly different between shear and extensionally strained samples.