Recent advances in the studies of bread baking process and their impacts on the bread baking technology

In bread-making, baking process is one of the key steps to produce the final product qualities including texture, color and flavor, as a result of several thermal reactions such as nonenzymatic browning reaction, starch gelatinization, protein denaturalization and so on. These thermal reactions are dominated by heat and mass transfer mechanisms inside an oven chamber as well as inside the dough pieces. Mathematical models have been developed to account for the heat and mass transfer phenomena and their consequent impacts on the product qualities. These studies have made the complicated baking process more clearly understood and predictable. As a result, baking process conditions can be optimized. In addition, new baking techniques and oven designs have been proposed in order to improve product qualities with better process economics.