Impact of lentil on quality characteristics of bread from wheat flour

One of the relevant problems of modern bakery is using raw material – wheat flour – of unstable quality. Nowadays, in order to stabilize the baking properties of wheat flour from grains with lower technological potential and to improve the bread quality, complex bread improvers based on soya flour with lipoxygenase activity have been made and are widely used. Lipoxygenase is important for bakery, plays an essential role in oxidative processes that affects the structural-mechanical properties of dough and color of the bread crumbs. Seeds of legume crops which include the research object – lentils – have the highest lipoxygenase activity.

The paper presents the study of the effect of four types of lentils (green, yellow, red, pardina) on the baking properties of wheat flour and bread quality characteristics, and assesses the possibilities of their use as a functional basis with enzyme (lipoxygenase) activity during development of complex bread improvers. It is shown that the investigated types of lentils strengthen the flour gluten, increase the activity of baker's yeast fermentation and improve the quality of bread. It has been established maximum effect is derived from the green and yellow lentils in doses of 0.75–1.25 % by weight of wheat flour that determines their use during the development of complex bread improvers intended to improve the quality of bakery products from wheat flour with medium and weak gluten.