May 07, 2020

Beyond the Ri’ichi: Part 5: Processing wheat - Satake PeriTec System

by Hiromi Saita, Senior Staff, International Management Office, Satake Corporation, Japan

What is wheat?

Different from rice, wheat is not cooked and eaten as grain in its natural form but turned into flour beforehand. The bran within rice is more rigid, so it has to be polished, making it more suitable for consumption as a grain, while wheat is better for consumption as flour because of its softer inner part, yet a tough outer skin. Wheat is edible as grain in some parts of the world, but it is common to use it in the form of flour.
 


Also, rice and wheat look completely different from their appearance in colour and shape, wheat has a groove (crease) in the grain. However, observations through electronic microscope show that their structures are very similar. Like peeling the skin from a fruit, the seed coat, as well as the glue powder layer, are peeled off during the milling process in the case of rice. Generally, in the case of wheat, the outer skin is separated while crushing the grains and the endosperm turned into powder which is used to make bread, noodles, confectioneries, etc. Another reason for using wheat in the form of flour is that it is easier to obtain gluten from it.

What is gluten?
Gluten is one of the protein components specific to wheat that is not present in other grains like rice or corn and is the main reason why wheat flour is widely used as food worldwide. Gluten is formed by two types of protein glutenin and gliadin, contained in wheat flour, in which quantity and balance determine the elasticity and stickiness of flour. Gluten increases proportionately with the amount of proteins in the wheat, so does the stickiness of flour made from it. The quality and quantity of this gluten are also the determinants of the swelling (rising) condition of the bread as well as the chewy sensation of Udon noodles, etc.


Read more HERE.
 

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.


For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com

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