Miller Magazine Issue: 152 August 2022

78 ARTICLE MILLER / AUGUST 2022 Starch damage, like many other aspects in baking, requires balance. If bakers and millers embrace starch damage not as a negative, but simply as a quality variable that can affect the consistency of their dough, our baking methods will only improve for the better. Starch Damage: What it is, and what it means to milling and baking Arnaud Dubat Product & Application Director Chopin Product Line with KPM Analytics There is a clear misunderstanding in the baking and milling industry around the concept of “starch damage.” Certainly, the first reaction to many could be a negative – if I am damaging the starch, does that mean I am damaging my flour? It is true: Starch damage does affect the behavior of dough during processing as well as the quality of the finished product. However, starch damage is a natural byproduct of the milling process. Whether or not your flour has too much or too little damaged starch is truly depen- dent on the milling intensity. Although protein receives all the attention when it comes to de- scribing flour quality, it is important to remember that flour is nearly 70-80% starch. And in fact, flour con- tains two types of starch: native starch, and damaged starch. But before going too deeply into the subject of starch damage and its impact on baking, it is im- portant first to know where starch damage comes from. There are three variables that affect the amount of damaged starch in flour: •Wheat hardness •The preparation of wheat for milling •The settings of the mill WHEAT HARDNESS, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON A BAKED PRODUCT One way to visualize how wheat is classified as “hard” or “soft” is to consider the con- struction of a brick wall. In this wall, the starch granules are the bricks, while the protein matrix of the endosperm of the wheat functions as the cement. So, let’s go to our “wall” and try to break it down with a given force. If the cement (protein matrix) is strong and sets the bricks (starch) well, it is the bricks on the wall that will break. The more compact our Figure 1. Anatomy of a grain