A review: Reverse approach to analyze the impact of starch modification on the inflation and gas holding properties of wheat-based matrices

Background: A variety of analysis methods exist to quantify structural changes of starch and to determine starch modification degree. However, analyzed structural alterations are often of subordinate importance to predict implications of physical starch modification caused by grinding on the inflation kinetics and gas holding capacity of starch-gluten matrices or effects are not examined for the gas stabilization in dough and crumbs. Scope and approach: The lack of systematic approaches to create a direct link between physically modified starch structures by grinding processes and their impact on gas holding capacity in liquid and solid cereal, food foams resulted in an imprecise specification of the term starch modification in baking flours. This review uses a reverse approach to identify mechanistic relations between physically modified starch structures and the inflation as well as gas stabilization of wheat-based matrices. For this purpose, firstly, relevant dough functionalities and influential starch structures to receive a satisfactory gas holding capacity are considered. Secondly, the impact of structural starch modifications on those relevant dough functionalities are discussed. Key findings and conclusion: The reverse approach helped to identify relevant physical modifications of starch enabling the reduction of the present analysis methods of functionalized flours during grinding. Moreover, the knowledge of the relevant starch structures provides a clear specification of functional mechanisms of starch in physically modified in baking flours. Thus, a purposive selection of baking flours and a controlled physical starch modification are enabled.