Quality and microbial stability of part-baked 'Barbari bread' during freezing storage

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of part-baking and freezing on the quality and microbial stability of part-baked flat bread (Barbari) in order to investigate a novel production and storage process. In this research, samples were baked at different baking times (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 min) and the appropriate time was determined. Then, part-baked bread (Barbari) was frozen at - 30 degrees C and kept at -18 degrees C for 4 months. The appropriate time for part-baking was 6 min. Results demonstrated that freezing could prevent some chemical and enzymatic reactions as well as microbial growth by deactivating free water in bread. No significant effect of freezing was found on the color of the samples during the storage. Also, hardness increased due to the increase in the freezing weight loss, especially in the last month of storage suggesting that storage time should be less than 2 months. Our observation confirmed that it is possible to prolong the shelf-life of Barbari bread from a few days to several months by using bake-off technology (BOT) and freezing storage method.