Modeling and optimization of the influence of accelerated ageing condition on physicochemical characteristics of wheat flour

Wheat is harvested in a short period of time, but it takes several months to be processed and consumed. So wheat flour needs to be stored in suitable condition to retain its good quality for nutrition and industrial uses. On the other hand, exposure of wheat under improper conditions may deteriorate the quality resulting in high economic losses. In this study accelerated ageing of wheat grains was carried out by increasing moisture content (16, 18 and 20%) and keeping the samples in different temperatures (30, 40 and 50°C) for different periods (2, 5 and 8 days).Samples were then milled and physicochemical properties including moisture content, protein, ash, wet gluten, pH and falling number were determined. Response surface methodology with central composite design was applied to minimize total numbers of experimental runs and to determine the significance of the factors.Results showed that increasing storage temperature and time resulted in increasing protein, falling number and ash, while wet gluten, pH and moisture content decrease. By increasing moisture content, wet gluten, protein, ash and falling number decreased while moisture content and pH increased. Optimization using response surface methodology showed that the optimum condition for accelerated ageing of wheat grain contained 16% moisture content, storage temperature of 40.74°C for 2.57 days.