RHEOLOGICAL CHANGES IN REFRIGERATED DOUGH DURING STORAGE IN RELATION TO PROTEINS

ABSTRACT Refrigerated dough is a flour‐based, unbaked product that is stored between 4 and 7C. The aim of this work was to study the rheological properties of refrigerated dough during storage and determine their correlations with dough proteins. Rheological properties were determined using texture analyzer and dynamic oscillatory rheometry during 34 days of storage. The protein analysis was performed by size‐exclusion high performance liquid chromatography. On day 34, Rmax was 93.8% higher than day 0. Both, the G′and G″moduli decreased during storage. Dough exhibited the major decreases on the moduli on day 3 and day 16. By comparing the viscoelastic properties of day 0 and day 16, a 50% decrease on the elastic modulus and a roughly 30% decrease in the loss modulus were observed. Changes in the protein fractions of dough samples were related to their rheological properties. The high and low molecular weight polymeric protein and gliadin were positively correlated to dough extensibility (r > 0.8343). PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS By definition, refrigerated dough is a flour‐based, unbaked product that is stored between 4 and 7C. Today's refrigerated dough industry traces its origin to a small bakery that started business in Louisville, KY in 1937. The first refrigerated dough product was a chemically leavened biscuit with a shelf life of about 3 weeks. Today, the refrigerated dough market encompasses a wide range of products available in the U.S.A. as well as the international market, including Western Europe and Canada. There are very limited peer review articles on the topic. This study investigated the stability of refrigerated dough during storage. The results obtained in the present work showed that protein composition of dough is altered during storage and these changes affect the rheological properties of dough samples. We believe that the refrigerated dough industry will find the presented research very useful in their applications.