Miller Magazine Issue 110 / February 2019

61 COVER STORY MILLER / FEBRUARY 2019 applications. For example, it can be used to grind ancient grains such as spelt, emmer wheat or einkorn wheat, as well as pseudo-cereals, pulses, pasta products, spices, coffee beans, or nuts. The Quadru- mat Junior from the Brabender program can also be used for to grind rice to production-like flours. The three rice flours from the raw material suppliers with nearly identical nutritio- nal values show clearly diffe- rent curves; this underscores the practicality of using the Farinograph to study these types of raw materials with regard to processing operati- ons. Ulrike Ito, who is writing her Bachelor’s thesis on the possible applications of the Farinograph in the Braben- der laboratory commented, “Studying rice pudding and Arborio flour was relatively unproblematic, because the curves are similar to those of wheat flour. However, the result for Basmati flour was significantly different. The optimal water absorption was difficult to determine with this sample. Even small changes in the addition of water caused large differen- ces in the consistency. In the long term, we observed no clear softening of the dough, even after a measuring period of 1.5 hours, and a noticeable “buckling” also occurred after approximately 45 minutes of kneading time with the addition of varying amounts of water and thus no measurement error.” The example clearly shows the potential of the new tool for quality control of incoming and outgoing go- ods and production, for process optimiza- tion, and last but not least, for the “pre-checking” of gluten-free raw materials for product and recipe development. For this purpose, other commercially available glu- ten-free flours were tested with the FarinoAdd-S300 on the Farinograph-TS in the Brabender laboratory, which confirm the realistic application potentials. Future Prospects for the “Glu- ten-Free Laboratory” Extruded produ- cts are key drivers of the gluten-free sna- ck market, particularly in North America and increasingly in the Far East, with momentum co- ming from East Asia to target new food textures. Therefore, practical equipment with extru- sion devices are now necessary “tools” for product developers in the food industry. With this modern key technology, newly developed snack products, breakfast cereals, flat breads, pastas, purees, confectionery products and pet food can be prepared on a laboratory scale. As an “entry-level model” Brabender, offers the Stand-A- lone Extruder KE 19, a sturdy, independently operating sing- le-screw extruder for labora- tories and technical centers. Based on a wide selection of screws and tools, this machi- ne is the ideal solution for the development of new materials and products, for testing processing behavior in recipe development and for product and quality control. The current top model from Brabender’s broad “ext- ruder family” is the TwinLab-F 20/40, which can also be used as a stand-alone device: a food-grade labo- ratory twin-screw extruder for materials development and process simulation. When it comes to texturing through laboratory scale extrusion, Brabender’s modular cooling die — introdu- ced as an add-on module for lab extruders at the be- ginning of the year — is an investment in the future, even a psychological investment. This die can be used to produce meat-like structures from vegetable-based raw materials (e.g., soybeans). Therefo- re, innovative food textures can be tested and subjected to sensory analysis, because the mout- hfeel of snack products is increasingly important to consumers. Last but not least, as with everything in the “glu- ten-free” world: No cross contact! Because everything applies to production must also be a matter of course in the laboratory – this means a de- dicated measuring device for glu- ten-containing raw materials and diffe- rent one for gluten-free raw materials. Viscograph-E FarinoAdd-S300