Proceedings of the XLVI Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Giardini Naxos, Italy - 18/21 September, 2002

ISBN 88-900622-3-1

Poster Abstract - 3.02

CHARACTERIZATION OF DIFFERENT SACCAROMYCES STRAINS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON DOUGH FERMENTATION IN BREAD-MAKING OF DURUM WHEAT

ROMANO A. D.*, CAGGIA C.*, SPINA A.**, PALUMBO M.**

*) Dipartimento di Ortofloroarboricoltura e Tecnologie Agroalimentari, Università di Catania

**) Istituto Sperimentale per la Cerealicoltura, Sezione di Catania

bread-making, durum wheat, fermentation, Saccharomyces

In many Mediterranean regions durum wheat utilisation in bread production is ever increasing. Bread made from durum wheat is preferred to common wheat bread due to its palatable and nutritional qualities. Different technologies of production, originated from old home-made baking, are used and many types of bread are produced, whose features vary according to local habits. In particular, the ways of rising (sourdoughs, commercial yeast, mixed rising) and the yeast characteristics appreciably influence the transformation process and the final product.

Among the technological characteristics of the baker’s yeast, the most important is the ability to quickly ferment and to metabolize monosaccharide (glucose and fructose) and disaccharide (saccharose and maltose) present in the flours.

Aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of different Saccharomyces strains to quickly rise dough of durum wheat semolina. Investigated strains have been isolated from Sicilian sourdoughs used for the production of typical home-made bread and from Sicilian wines, identified by PCR-RFLP of ITS regions of ribosomial DNA and characterized by karyotiping.

Bread-making tests were carried out, according to the AACC (American Association of Cereal Chemists) procedure modified for durum wheat, using 10 different Saccharomyces strains, in comparison with the commercial culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The fermentative ability of the different yeast was estimated measuring the volume increase of dough during two hours. On bread samples the following characteristics have been determined: volume and weight of loaf; roughness and colour of crust; moisture, porosity and colour of crumb. In order to estimate the bread staling process, volume, weight and moisture were measured up to six days after baking.