Thermo-physical assessment of bread during staling

Staling of bread is a highly complex phenomenon that is not yet fully understood. This study examined the effect of staling on thermal (DSC) and thermo-physical (DMA) properties of bread. The staling process increased water migration from the crumb to the crust and increased unfreezable water (UFW) fraction. Amylopectin retrogradation incremented during bread staling, and it was showed that the loss in freezable water (FW) was caused from water incorporation into the starch crystalline structure and water migration from the crumb to the crust. DMA was able to follow the shrinking behavior of bread crumb during freezing. Crumb shrank through the entire cooling and freezing process. The matrix shifts through their freezing process incremented the rate of their contraction, probably due to the matrix dehydration as consequence of ice formation. The ageing process changes the thermo-mechanical profile of the crumb, and it was showed that a greater amount of retrogradated starch, affected significantly the contraction capacity of bread crumb.