Bread as a chemical reactor : Triggering the aroma production through chemical kinetics

Recent studies address the structural modifications occurring in the thermal processing of food to interact with the development of aroma and taste compounds. Food sensory science is often related to statistical analysis of panel tests and subjective human responses. From a chemical engineering perspective, food can be treated like a chemical reactor. Bread can be one example of "food chemical reactor", which enormously changes its density (from high to low depending on the leavening process), its aroma (driven from Maillard and other reactions involving carbohydrates, proteins and fats), its color (caramelization and Maillard), its structure (starch gelatinization, gluten hardening), etc. Indeed, transport phenomena and chemical kinetics are consistently involved in this process. A detailed study on the chemical kinetics of bread aroma development can be helpful to achieve an objective quality marker, which can be monitored and controlled dynamically through the process conditions and variables. The identification of the most relevant aroma compounds and the relative production paths description is the key to the kinetic approach. This would be beneficial for industrial purposes: the result of the research is the scientific description of a quantitative-sensorial aspect. This feature can be useful for further integration with physical/phenomenological models and texture models, to achieve an innovative holistic viewpoint for the product development and process control on the industrial scale breadmaking.