Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Andrew P. Barkley / The objectives of this thesis is to use regression models and market trends to determine whether the changing product mix of Ardent Mills has an impact on volume, sales dollars, and margin dollars. The results will be used to build a market analysis of Ardent Mills’ product mix strategy. Flour milling is a highly competitive industry. Ardent Mills is constantly looking to increase profits and become more valuable to its customers. Specialty products have created a new opportunity, but the opportunity costs must also be considered. Determining what new products to develop, where to manufacture them, and whether to create new capacity or convert existing capacity are difficult decisions that must be made. The data used in this thesis were collected from Ardent Mills’ sales records from June 1, 2014 through December 31, 2016. Type of product, sales volume, sales dollars, and margin dollars were collected for each month to be analyzed. The study determined that increasing the volume of whole wheat flour sales decreases white flour volume, total flour volume, white flour sales dollars, and total flour sales dollars. Increasing the volume of UltraGrain increases white flour sales dollars and total flour sales dollars. Increasing the volume of wheat-based specialty products increases the volume of white flour and the volume of total flour. As the demand for UltraGrain and wheat-based specialty products increases, the demand for white flour increases as well. Decreasing wheat prices have allowed for additional margin to be captured.

Master of Science / Food Science / Fadi Aramouni / Nutrition from whole grains has become an integral part of a healthy diet. Consumers are focused on adding fiber and whole grains to be healthy and want the benefits of whole grain with the taste and appearance of refined flour. A review of current commercial whole wheat flour in the marketplace indicated many options for food processors to use. However, many of these options required processing changes and added ingredients to provide the consumer with a quality product. A milling and baking study was done to compare commercially and experimentally milled whole wheat flours from both white and red wheat varieties. Both white and red wheat varieties were kept identity preserved. Experimental milling was done with a hammer mill and a roll stand to closely replicate the commercial milling process. Baking was done using a sponge and dough method to closely replicate commercial baking conditions. The results showed both particle size and wheat variety impact bake performance of whole wheat flour. The most significant impact appeared to be dependent on the variety of wheat being milled. The milling process also had an impact. As particle size decreased, bake functionality improved. However, some decreased functionality was seen when particle size became very fine. It was concluded that additional work on a commercial flour mill needed to be done to determine if an optimal particle size for milling whole wheat flour exists. Experimental milling equipment was not adequate enough to replicate particle size distributions of commercial whole wheat mills.

Emphasis on using the glycaemic index (GI) in addition to carbohydrate exchange lists has led to a greater variety of foods from which to choose for the diabetic population. Breakfast is regarded as the most important meal of the day and the glycaemic response to lunch can be improved by decreasing the GI of breakfast. However, most conventional breakfast cereals and bread exhibit a high GI. Dried beans have a low GI and various processes such as cooking and canning increase GI values, but still in the low GI range. In recent years, extrusion cooking has become one of the popular new processes developed by the food industry. Extrusion provides a convenient alternative for the ingestion of dry beans in the diet. Muffins are eaten by many South Africans and may be an ideal alternative for breakfast cereals and bread, especially if the GI of the muffins is low. The aim of this study was to determine the GI of a muffin baked with extruded bean flour and compare it to the GI of a muffin baked with whole wheat flour. Subjects and methodology: The study cohort consisted of ten healthy males and ten healthy females. Subjects randomly consumed test meals of glucose (the reference), bean muffins and whole wheat muffins on different days. Each test meal provided 509 available carbohydrate as analysed by the Englyst method. Results: The GI of the muffin baked with extruded bean flour (mean 53.0%, Confidence intervals (CI): 41.7; 64.2) was not significantly different from that of the whole wheat muffin (mean 55.5%, CI: 41.8; 69.2) but still in the low to intermediate GI category. Conclusion: Extrusion of dried beans results in a fine flour with relatively no intact starch which may explain the very low resistant starch content (1.6I100g) of the muffins. The small particle size of the fine flour could further have contributed to the higher than expected GI of the bean muffin because the size of the particle is inversely related to glycaemic response. Muffins baked with extruded dried bean meal are nevertheless regarded as an excellent choice for breakfast and as part of the prudent diet. Beans have additional health benefits and are included in the South African Food Based Dietary Guidelines. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Dietetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Aroma is one of the most important quality attributes of bread or any food. It will determine whether the product will be tasted and eaten in the first instance and is a major factor in establishing acceptability and preference. The dominant preference by consumers of bread made from refined flour in contrast to whole wheat flour is at least in part due to the strong and different aroma of whole wheat bread. White wheats may have an advantage over red wheat in this regard according to some industry reports, but the science is extremely limited. The goal of this research was to add more science-based knowledge to this topic via the use of machine olfaction technology, specifically electronic (E) nose and gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A state-of-the-art E-nose system (AlphaMOS FOX 3000) with metal oxide sensors (MOS) was used to capture aroma volatiles from crumb, crust and whole slices of breads made from sound Canadian Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat as well as representative samples of two hard white wheats, viz. Snowbird, a cultivar belonging to the Canada Western Hard White Spring (CWHWS) class of wheat, and Platte, a U.S. Hard White Winter (HWW) wheat. The same CWRS wheat provided the base flour for all the breads. A commercial formula and size format was used to produce breads from four flours for the study, i.e. refined CWRS wheat, and three whole wheat flours comprising blends of 85% CWRS flour and 15% bran from CWRS wheat, Snowbird and Platte. As there was no established protocol in the literature to evaluate bread aroma by E-nose, one was developed. Five temperatures (35, 40, 45, 50 and 60°C) were tested along with two incubation times (5 and 10 min) and four sample sizes (0.05, 0.1, 0.25 and 0.50 g) of ground bread crumbs. Through optimization using E-nose software including principal component analysis, a procedure was adopted using 40 °C, 5 min incubation time and 0.05 g of sample to acquire MOS data from 12 sensors for crust, crumb and whole slices of refined and whole wheat breads. Multivariate analysis methods were used to evaluate the capabilities of the E-nose system to discriminate and correctly classify samples according to bread type. Data for analysis comprised approximately 24 samples each of crust, crumb and whole slices randomly selected from three loaves each of refined and the three whole wheat breads. Results varied according to the nature of the sample, i.e. crust, crumb or whole slices. For crusts, the greatest distinction in aroma was found between refined and whole wheat breads. Refined bread crust was correctly classified 67% of the time. When refined bread crust was misclassified, samples were confused with whole white wheat crust predominantly from Platte bread. For whole wheat bread crusts, the pattern of classification depended mainly on bran colour. Whole wheat bread crust samples had correct classification scores in the range 54-58%. When misclassified, whole wheat CWRS crust was equally confused with the aroma of crust of the white whole wheat breads, Platte and Snowbird. Whole wheat Platte crust tended to be misclassified with the counterpart white whole wheat Snowbird or refined bread crust. In contrast, Snowbird whole wheat crust tended to be misclassified as either its counterpart HW wheat Platte or whole CWRS wheat. Accordingly, Platte bread crust appeared to possess an aroma more in line with refined wheat bread as opposed to whole wheat bread. For bread crumb, the pattern of E-nose differentiation of samples was different. In this case, CWRS whole wheat bread aroma was clearly and perfectly distinguished from the crumb aroma of all the other breads, either whole white wheat or refined CWRS. The latter tended to cluster on its own, as might be expected, and had a correct classification score of 75%, with the balance of samples largely misclassified as Snowbird crumb. Whole wheat Platte and Snowbird bread crumb had identical correct classification scores of 42%, and were similarly confused with the other’s aroma (average 3 4% classified) or the aroma of refined wheat bread (average 21% classified). E-nose results for crumb indicated a clear distinction in aroma between the hard red and white wheats in this study. E-nose analysis of bread samples representing whole slices produced results that provided unsatisfactory discrimination among bread types likely due to the blending of the different aromas of constituent crust and crumb. For whole slices, discrimination between refined and whole wheat breads was substantially lower than that for either crust and crumb samples. Based on this result, analysis of samples that combine both crust and crumb is not recommended for sensory analysis of bread, whether by instruments or human sensory panel. Further understanding of the differences between different types of bread made from refined wheat flour and whole wheat, and how the inclusion of bran from red and white-grained wheats modifies the composition and content of volatile and non-volatile compounds in crust and crumb was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In total, 50 compounds were found, the greater majority of which have been previously reported in bread. Major Maillard reaction compounds like furfural, 2-furanmethanol, pyranone, maltol and 5-hydroxymethyl- 2-furancarboxaldehyde were present in highest concentration in whole CWRS bread. Significantly fewer compounds were found in the crust and crumb of CWRS refined wheat bread compared to the other whole wheat breads. In contrast, whole CWRS bread crumb and crust had the highest number of compounds, and in considerably higher total concentration compared to the other two whole white wheat breads, Snowbird and Platte. The higher concentration and number of compounds in whole CWRS bread was attributed to the wheat bran fraction. White whole wheat breads, Snowbird and Platte, had a total number of compounds in crust and crumb approximately intermediate between refined and whole CWRS bread, although Platte whole wheat bread crust was closer to refined bread crust in compound numbers. In terms of total compound concentrations, crust and crumb samples of the whole white breads were clearly more similar to refined CWRS bread, and in the case of whole wheat Platte bread crust, compound concentrations were much lower. On the whole, these aggregate totals of compound numbers and concentrations by GC-MS mirrored the discrimination and classification results obtained by E-nose, and supported the contention that whole wheat bread made with white wheat bran was milder in aroma compared to bread formulated using red wheat bran. While the number of samples of red and white wheats were very few in this study, results support the contention that different wheat genotypes and specifically, the bran tissue of these genotypes, contain differences in compound composition and/or concentration which when processed by breadmaking, manifest volatiles characteristic of those genotypes even between genotypes possessing the same colour of bran. E-nose instrumentation appears to be very capable of accommodating these sorts of complex tasks on fresh bread. It would be highly beneficial in future research to carry out similar studies in parallel with a human sensory panel, and ideally with many more genotypes of red and white grained wheat with an aim to firmly establish the relative superiority of particular genotypes to produce whole wheat bread with aroma profiles more similar to those of white pan bread. The long term goal of such studies would be to foster increased consumption of whole wheat products and constituent bioactive compounds which confer favourable health benefits in the general population.

Emphasis on using the glycaemic index (GI) in addition to carbohydrate exchange lists has led to a greater variety of foods from which to choose for the diabetic population. Breakfast is regarded as the most important meal of the day and the glycaemic response to lunch can be improved by decreasing the GI of breakfast. However, most conventional breakfast cereals and bread exhibit a high GI. Dried beans have a low GI and various processes such as cooking and canning increase GI values, but still in the low GI range. In recent years, extrusion cooking has become one of the popular new processes developed by the food industry. Extrusion provides a convenient alternative for the ingestion of dry beans in the diet. Muffins are eaten by many South Africans and may be an ideal alternative for breakfast cereals and bread, especially if the GI of the muffins is low. The aim of this study was to determine the GI of a muffin baked with extruded bean flour and compare it to the GI of a muffin baked with whole wheat flour. Subjects and methodology: The study cohort consisted of ten healthy males and ten healthy females. Subjects randomly consumed test meals of glucose (the reference), bean muffins and whole wheat muffins on different days. Each test meal provided 509 available carbohydrate as analysed by the Englyst method. Results: The GI of the muffin baked with extruded bean flour (mean 53.0%, Confidence intervals (CI): 41.7; 64.2) was not significantly different from that of the whole wheat muffin (mean 55.5%, CI: 41.8; 69.2) but still in the low to intermediate GI category. Conclusion: Extrusion of dried beans results in a fine flour with relatively no intact starch which may explain the very low resistant starch content (1.6I100g) of the muffins. The small particle size of the fine flour could further have contributed to the higher than expected GI of the bean muffin because the size of the particle is inversely related to glycaemic response. Muffins baked with extruded dried bean meal are nevertheless regarded as an excellent choice for breakfast and as part of the prudent diet. Beans have additional health benefits and are included in the South African Food Based Dietary Guidelines. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Dietetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Aroma is one of the most important quality attributes of bread or any food. It will determine whether the product will be tasted and eaten in the first instance and is a major factor in establishing acceptability and preference. The dominant preference by consumers of bread made from refined flour in contrast to whole wheat flour is at least in part due to the strong and different aroma of whole wheat bread. White wheats may have an advantage over red wheat in this regard according to some industry reports, but the science is extremely limited. The goal of this research was to add more science-based knowledge to this topic via the use of machine olfaction technology, specifically electronic (E) nose and gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A state-of-the-art E-nose system (AlphaMOS FOX 3000) with metal oxide sensors (MOS) was used to capture aroma volatiles from crumb, crust and whole slices of breads made from sound Canadian Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat as well as representative samples of two hard white wheats, viz. Snowbird, a cultivar belonging to the Canada Western Hard White Spring (CWHWS) class of wheat, and Platte, a U.S. Hard White Winter (HWW) wheat. The same CWRS wheat provided the base flour for all the breads. A commercial formula and size format was used to produce breads from four flours for the study, i.e. refined CWRS wheat, and three whole wheat flours comprising blends of 85% CWRS flour and 15% bran from CWRS wheat, Snowbird and Platte. As there was no established protocol in the literature to evaluate bread aroma by E-nose, one was developed. Five temperatures (35, 40, 45, 50 and 60°C) were tested along with two incubation times (5 and 10 min) and four sample sizes (0.05, 0.1, 0.25 and 0.50 g) of ground bread crumbs. Through optimization using E-nose software including principal component analysis, a procedure was adopted using 40 °C, 5 min incubation time and 0.05 g of sample to acquire MOS data from 12 sensors for crust, crumb and whole slices of refined and whole wheat breads. Multivariate analysis methods were used to evaluate the capabilities of the E-nose system to discriminate and correctly classify samples according to bread type. Data for analysis comprised approximately 24 samples each of crust, crumb and whole slices randomly selected from three loaves each of refined and the three whole wheat breads. Results varied according to the nature of the sample, i.e. crust, crumb or whole slices. For crusts, the greatest distinction in aroma was found between refined and whole wheat breads. Refined bread crust was correctly classified 67% of the time. When refined bread crust was misclassified, samples were confused with whole white wheat crust predominantly from Platte bread. For whole wheat bread crusts, the pattern of classification depended mainly on bran colour. Whole wheat bread crust samples had correct classification scores in the range 54-58%. When misclassified, whole wheat CWRS crust was equally confused with the aroma of crust of the white whole wheat breads, Platte and Snowbird. Whole wheat Platte crust tended to be misclassified with the counterpart white whole wheat Snowbird or refined bread crust. In contrast, Snowbird whole wheat crust tended to be misclassified as either its counterpart HW wheat Platte or whole CWRS wheat. Accordingly, Platte bread crust appeared to possess an aroma more in line with refined wheat bread as opposed to whole wheat bread. For bread crumb, the pattern of E-nose differentiation of samples was different. In this case, CWRS whole wheat bread aroma was clearly and perfectly distinguished from the crumb aroma of all the other breads, either whole white wheat or refined CWRS. The latter tended to cluster on its own, as might be expected, and had a correct classification score of 75%, with the balance of samples largely misclassified as Snowbird crumb. Whole wheat Platte and Snowbird bread crumb had identical correct classification scores of 42%, and were similarly confused with the other’s aroma (average 3 4% classified) or the aroma of refined wheat bread (average 21% classified). E-nose results for crumb indicated a clear distinction in aroma between the hard red and white wheats in this study. E-nose analysis of bread samples representing whole slices produced results that provided unsatisfactory discrimination among bread types likely due to the blending of the different aromas of constituent crust and crumb. For whole slices, discrimination between refined and whole wheat breads was substantially lower than that for either crust and crumb samples. Based on this result, analysis of samples that combine both crust and crumb is not recommended for sensory analysis of bread, whether by instruments or human sensory panel. Further understanding of the differences between different types of bread made from refined wheat flour and whole wheat, and how the inclusion of bran from red and white-grained wheats modifies the composition and content of volatile and non-volatile compounds in crust and crumb was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In total, 50 compounds were found, the greater majority of which have been previously reported in bread. Major Maillard reaction compounds like furfural, 2-furanmethanol, pyranone, maltol and 5-hydroxymethyl- 2-furancarboxaldehyde were present in highest concentration in whole CWRS bread. Significantly fewer compounds were found in the crust and crumb of CWRS refined wheat bread compared to the other whole wheat breads. In contrast, whole CWRS bread crumb and crust had the highest number of compounds, and in considerably higher total concentration compared to the other two whole white wheat breads, Snowbird and Platte. The higher concentration and number of compounds in whole CWRS bread was attributed to the wheat bran fraction. White whole wheat breads, Snowbird and Platte, had a total number of compounds in crust and crumb approximately intermediate between refined and whole CWRS bread, although Platte whole wheat bread crust was closer to refined bread crust in compound numbers. In terms of total compound concentrations, crust and crumb samples of the whole white breads were clearly more similar to refined CWRS bread, and in the case of whole wheat Platte bread crust, compound concentrations were much lower. On the whole, these aggregate totals of compound numbers and concentrations by GC-MS mirrored the discrimination and classification results obtained by E-nose, and supported the contention that whole wheat bread made with white wheat bran was milder in aroma compared to bread formulated using red wheat bran. While the number of samples of red and white wheats were very few in this study, results support the contention that different wheat genotypes and specifically, the bran tissue of these genotypes, contain differences in compound composition and/or concentration which when processed by breadmaking, manifest volatiles characteristic of those genotypes even between genotypes possessing the same colour of bran. E-nose instrumentation appears to be very capable of accommodating these sorts of complex tasks on fresh bread. It would be highly beneficial in future research to carry out similar studies in parallel with a human sensory panel, and ideally with many more genotypes of red and white grained wheat with an aim to firmly establish the relative superiority of particular genotypes to produce whole wheat bread with aroma profiles more similar to those of white pan bread. The long term goal of such studies would be to foster increased consumption of whole wheat products and constituent bioactive compounds which confer favourable health benefits in the general population.

Master of Science / Department of Grain Science and Industry / Rebecca A. Regan / A laboratory-scale method for wheat germination was developed and used to compare hard red winter wheat varieties for sprout related attributes, activity, and whole wheat bread baking performance. WB 4458, WB Grainfield, LCS Mint, LCS Wizard, SY Monument, and T158 wheat varieties grown in three Kansas locations were germinated with the developed small-scale germination method and falling number values were compared. Byrd, Tam 204, and T158 were germinated with a scaled-up germination method aimed at generating samples in three falling number ranges of less than 120 seconds (low falling number and highly sprouted), 250±40 seconds (medium falling number), and 350±40 seconds (high falling number and low sprouting). Controls were un-germinated, sound (>400 seconds falling number), samples of each variety. The control whole grain and sprouted wheat was ground into flour. A mixograph was used to determine dough water absorption and mixing time. Whole wheat bread was made to determine bread volume, crumb characteristics, and bread texture. Overall there were few significant differences within each wheat variety for the different levels of germination. The only significant difference observed in all three varieties was that each highly sprouted grain (<120 seconds falling number) produced bread with significantly lower elasticity than the control within each variety, indicating that this level of germination produced a gummier bread. Elasticity was positively correlated with falling number (r=+0.71). A focused analysis on the Byrd variety compared the germinated samples to samples generated with added malted barley to the same falling number ranges. RVA analysis showed the gelatinization profiles for germinated and malted samples were similar within each falling number range. The highly and medium sprouted grain had significantly lower dough water absorption than the malted counterparts for those levels and the medium sprouted grain also had a lower mix time then the malted sample. There were no significant differences in bread volume, crumb characteristics, or bread texture except the highly sprouted grain had significantly lower elasticity than the control and the malted counterpart was not significantly different. In general, this experiment demonstrated that variety and germination conditions are important considerations in sprouting wheat and that whole wheat flour made from a wide range of germination levels produced quality bread that was not different from the control for most of the parameters investigated.

This study aimed to quantify resistant starch (RS) beta-glucans (BG) and fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) in Indian and Canadian wheat varieties and in chapaties made from these; and to assess the effects of soy flour on the levels of these components and its effects on the sensory and functional properties of the wheat-soy chapaties. Seven wheat varieties (Indian / Canadian) were milled into flour; supplemented with 0 % (control), 10 %, 20 % or 30 % defatted soy flour and made into chapaties. Flours and chapaties (freeze-dried, pulverized) were assayed for BG, FOS, RS and simple sugars (glucose / sucrose). Sensory evaluation was carried out by (9 point) hedonic rating of chapaties by 20 untrained Indian panelists. Flour water-holding capacity and water absorption indices (WAI) were determined. RS content of flours ranged from 7.1 g/100 g to 12.6 g/100g, but decreased when made into chapaties, (< 1 g/100 g), and decreased further with soy flour addition. BG content in flours ranged from 0.8 g/100 g to 1.4 g/100 g, while FOS content ranged from 1.3 g/100 g to 2.3 g/100 g. Minimal changes were observed in BG and FOS content when made into chapaties. Simple sugars were minimal in flours and chapaties. WAI of wheat flour was increased with addition of soy bean flour. Addition of up to 30 % soybean flour elevated the sensory acceptability of chapaties. While there is a decrease in RS with chapati making, the levels of BG and FOS are largely unchanged with processing. / Master of Science

Whole grains are an increasingly popular health food in America. However, shelf life of whole grains is compromised due to the presence of lipoxygenases in the bran and germ, which lead to rancidity and generation of oxidative byproducts. These byproducts reduce sensory quality and may have a degradative effect on vitamins in whole grain products. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of lipid and vitamin degradation during long-term storage of three whole grains: whole wheat flour, brown rice, and rolled oats. We also examined vitamin loss after cooking to determine if oxidative byproducts had an effect on vitamins during typical household cooking. Whole wheat flour, brown rice, and rolled oats were stored for 12 months and periodically analyzed for conjugated dienes, free fatty acids, tocopherols, thiamin, and riboflavin. Whole wheat bread, steamed brown rice, and oat porridge were made from samples stored for 0 months and 12 months and were analyzed for thiamin and riboflavin. Conjugated dienes increased significantly only in rolled oats, while tocopherols decreased significantly in whole wheat flour and rolled oats and insignificantly in brown rice. Free fatty acids increased significantly in whole wheat flour and brown rice. Thiamin and riboflavin were stable in raw stored grains and cooked products made from stored grains with the exception of brown rice, in which we observed a significant decrease in thiamin after 12-month storage and cooking. These results suggest whole wheat flour, brown rice, and rolled oats experience significant lipid and tocopherol degradation, but it does not appear to affect thiamin and riboflavin in raw stored products. Cooking appears to cause degradation of thiamin after storage of brown rice, but thiamin and riboflavin were otherwise stable in these whole grains.

The present study investigated the antioxidant properties of commercial regular- and whole- wheat spaghetti. The antioxidant properties comprise the total phenolic content, DPPH radical scavenging activity, oxygen radical absorbance capacity. The contents of ferulic acid, C-glycosyl flavones and SDG were measured by using LC/MS techniques. Whole wheat spaghetti showed significantly higher TPC and ORAC. The contents of ferulic acid, C-glycosyl flavones and SDG were significantly higher in whole wheat spaghetti. The TPC was found to decrease 48 – 78% after cooking. The results showed that consumption of whole grain is strongly recommended. The present study also compared the antioxidant properties of commercial infant cereals. Purple wheat and red rice were used in making home-made and lab-made infant cereals. Pigmented infant cereals showed higher TPC, total anthocyanin content (TAC) and ORAC then brown rice and commercial ones. Anthocyanins were found only in purple wheat while a C-glycosyl flavone was found at higher levels in purple wheat than in red rice samples. Home-made samples did not show significant differences in TPC, TAC and ORAC with lab-made ones; however, the contents of anthocyanins and C-glycosyl flavones were significantly different. Home-made purple wheat infant cereals showed higher cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) than lab-made purple wheat, red rice and commercial ones. Whole purple wheat holds potential to improve the antioxidant properties of infant cereals.