Glucomannan as an anti-staling agent to improve the texture value of whole wheat bread

Abstract

Utilization of whole wheat flour to make bread has disadvantages of having a bad texture which is hard, not springy, non-uniform pores and has a higher level of staling. Glucomannan can affect the level of hardness, springiness, cohesiveness and inhibit the staling process by forming a gel that will absorb water which can easily hold the gas during fermentation. This causes bread to have a uniform pore with soft crusts so that the hardness value and staling process decreases. This research aimed to examine the properties of mixture of whole wheat flour with high, medium and low protein flour modified by 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% of glucomannan gel to improve the physical and organoleptic properties of the bread by using TPA methods. The data obtained were tested statistically with α = 5%. The best proportion was mixture of high protein flour and whole wheat flour with 1.5% glucomannan concentration. This produces bread with 3.54 N of hardness, 4.39 mm of springiness and 0.85 of cohesiveness. Bread with this formula undergoes a staling process longer than wheat bread without added glucomannan. The staling process began on the 3rd day and has increased by 21.87% from day 1 with a hardness value 26.65 N. On visual observation, breadcrusts occured on the 5th day. Therefore, the addition of glucomannan is able to improve the texture and can inhibit the process of staling on bread.