Comparison of quality of refined and whole wheat tortillas

The use of whole wheat flour instead of refined flour significantly improves the nutritional profile of flour tortillas. However, whole and refined flours differ in properties and in how they process, thus needing process modifications to get the desired product quality. To understand these differences, refined and whole wheat flours, dough and tortillas were evaluated and compared for physical and rheological properties. Overall, whole wheat flour required more water (59% of flour weight) than refined wheat (53%) to make machineable dough. Refined flour doughs were more extensible and softer than whole wheat flour doughs, thus easier to process. Whole wheat flour tortillas were larger, thinner and less opaque than refined flour tortillas. In general, refined wheat tortillas were more shelf-stable than whole wheat tortillas. Smaller particle size and less fiber in the refined wheat flour mainly contributed to the observed differences. Among the whole wheat samples, tortillas from strong flours had excellent shelf-stability, which must be considered when whole wheat tortillas are processed. This will minimize the need to add vital wheat gluten or other dough strengtheners.