Effect of preservatives addition on the shelf-life extensions and quality of flat bread as determined by near-infrared spectroscopy and texture analysis

Many people do not have refrigeration or frozen storage to inhibit mould growth and keep the Arabic bread fresh for more than a few days. Therefore, shelf-life extension is necessary for this type of bread. The present study hypothesised that the addition of preservatives may be done in Arabic flat bread (AFB) to extend shelf-life. Thus, objectives of this study were to evaluate selected preservatives to inhibit mould growth and to employ physical techniques, to monitor bread aging. Three preservatives, fumaric acid (0.2%, F), sodium propionate (0.3%, P), and sodium propionate-fumaric acid mixture (PF) were used. Tensile tests, and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) were used to monitor bread ageing. The addition of PF in the AFB formula significantly increased the time of tearing at 0 day. For all treatments, the NIRS results showed high R²-values between the actual storage days and NIRS predictions. The NIRS and texture analysis are valuable tools to detect the effect of the preservatives on AFB shelf-life and quality.