Miller Magazine Issue: 134 February 2021

44 COVER STORY MILLER / february 2021 2. In the mill - Mill wheat and create the flour for your customers You need to track key parameters to optimise ingredient use, increase yield and ensure con- sistency during processing. Making the flour is about blending wheat, cleaning, tempering, grinding and sieving to get your wheat products. Measure protein and moisture content accord- ingly, control flour extraction with continuous ash measurements. Collect samples in the mill and assess functional properties. Accurate moisture analysis ensures correct payment and storage. Rapid and accurate mois- ture measurement helps the millers optimising tempering. Moisture is also important in ground wheat for correct Falling Number measurements. The PerkinElmer DA 7350 In- line NIR process sensor will keep controlling the ash content in re- al-time for any production batch. The roll stands can be adjusted whenever needed to achieve the target value for the ash content. In addition, any sieve issue will be highlighted with the DA 7350 built-in camera and video, visible on the user interface. Colour mea- surements, specks count, protein content and moisture are part of the multi-components real-time analysis. You can collect samples in the mill and run Falling Number tests to calculate blends of flours and achieve a specific Falling Number result, or calculate malt addition. The use of real-time DA 7350 In-line NIR pro- cess sensor protein analysis for gluten addition give major benefits: reducing safety margins to achieve the protein content specifications and saving on expensive ingredient. Protein content does not guarantee flour performance. Many flour millers use the Glutomatic system to test flour streams for gluten formation quantity and quality. The results of the Glutomatic tests are used to calculate blends of flours and vital wheat gluten addition. 3. At load out - Verify end-product consistent quality & performance Consistent flour quality is also about shipping flours with same characteristics, over time, whatever variability you may have from incoming wheat, am- bient temperature and relative humidity in the mill, wear in the rolls, sieves and process equipment. Checking end-product quality and performance require a few specific tests on the flours you sell and test bake to observe end-product behaviour. For end-product quality, the In-Line NIR process sensor is of great help to assess the consistency of the complete batch for protein, ash content, moisture, water absorption, wet glu- ten and more. The DA 7350 NIR sensor averages 20 mea- surements every second. By doing so, you will get a full report summarising the results obtained every second during the loading time of the flour batch. Therefore, you can guarantee the consistency and regularity of the complete batch to the contract specifications agreed with your customer. Consistent flours functionalities for protein and starch characteristics will require tests in the laboratory. For pro- tein characteristics, you will be testing for dough behaviour and measure dough development, stability, softening, mixing time and more. For starch characteristics, measuring enzyme effects, starch pasting and starch damage, will give you a complete picture. The following analytical instruments will help you to run the above tests. In-Line DA 7350 NIR dougLAB In-Line DA 7350 NIR User Interface