Staling of white wheat bread crumb and effect of maltogenic α-amylases. Part 2: Monitoring the staling process by using near infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics

This second paper provides chemical insight of the different phenomena occurring in bread during storage with and without anti-staling enzymes by using near infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics. The target, thus, is three-fold: (1) To monitor the staling process in the top, middle and bottom parts of the white bread loaf by near infrared spectroscopy and to extract chemical information of the different chemical mechanisms occurring in the staling process; (2) to assess the correlation between the near infrared spectroscopy and spatial texture profile analysis in terms of hardness, and (3) to demonstrate the anti-staling effect of the enzymes by showing a collapse of the correlation between near infrared (NIR) spectra and hardness as measured by texture analysis. It is found that NIR spectroscopy in combination with chemometrics (Partial Least Squares Regression) can predict the hardness development of the control bread.