Bulk flow properties of hard and soft wheat flours

• Flour from soft wheat was cohesive than hard wheat flour.
• Wheat flour do not agglomerate during handling.
• Hard wheat flour has higher air permeability compared to soft wheat flour.
• The tests indicated soft winter wheat flour flowability is lesser than hard red winter wheat flour.

Hard red winter (HRW) and soft white winter (SWW) wheat flours are commonly used in bakeries, preparation of snacks, cereals, and ready-to-eat food. The quality of the end product depends on the wheat and flour processing conditions which, in turn, depend significantly on the flow properties of the ingredients. This study describes a comparative evaluation of the flow properties of a HRW and a SWW flour. The average particle size of HRW and SWW wheat flours was 48.77 and 48.20 μm, respectively. The bulk and tapped density of HRW flour was significantly higher than SWW flour. The aeration ratios for HRW and SWW were found to be 16.69 and 12.67, respectively. The wall friction angle for SWW flour was higher than that of HRW flour. HRW and SWW flour had distinctly different flow properties due to their difference in intrinsic physical and chemical composition. The results indicate that SWW flour had higher cohesiveness than HRW flour and has lesser flowability than HRW flour.