A combined use of different functional additives for improvement of wheat flour quality for bread making

BACKGROUND Low‐protein wheat flour can produce bread with poor texture and appearance, reducing its nutritional value and market appeal. This is a growing concern for both the food industry and consumers relying on wheat as a dietary staple. The present study evaluated the individual and combined effects of bacterial xylanase (BX), maltogenic α‐amylase (MG), vital gluten (VG) and ascorbic acid (AA) with respect to improving weak flour properties for bread making. RESULTS BX, VG and AA improved gluten Index (GI), whereas MG was employed for optimizing amylolytic‐activity in flour. VG increased the water absorption (WA) capacity of flour and prolonged dough development time (DDT). The dough stability (DST) was increased by BX and VG. BX and MG decreased crumb firmness (CF) and showed anti‐staling effect. All additives reduced bake loss, increased loaf volume (LV) and retained or improved sensory attributes of bread. However, MG at 60 mg kg−1 (MG60), BX at 30 mg kg−1 (BX30), VG at 5% (VG5) and AA at 50 mg kg−1 (AA50) were found to be the most suitable for evaluating in combinations. Ternary combinations of MG60, BX30, VG5 or AA50 imparted significantly (P