Implementation of a novel tool to quantify dough microstructure

A method was developed to quantify the microstructure of wheat dough proteins assessed by a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) in combination with an image processing and analyzing tool. A variation of the water addition especially showed high significant (p<0.01) linear correlations with the branching index (r=-0.92). This branching index exhibited high significant correlation coefficients with the rheological measures complex shear modulus (r=0.88), creep compliance (r=-0.71) and relative elastic part (r=0.82). In summary the results submit a novel view on the microstructure of dough. The obtained visual structure of the dough via CLSM in combination with image processing and analyzing has proven to be a reliable and powerful tool for the acquisition and validation of dough protein microstructure. The high dependency of rheology from structural elements could be verified.