Digital imaging as a tool to study the structure of porous baked foods

Processing of images captured by a digital camera showed to be useful in studying the microstructure (porosity characteristics and fractal dimension) of leavened baked products. Five different samples were baked including a control and 4 other samples in which wheat flour was partially replaced with other plant flours. Pasting temperature (°C) ranged from 72.94 to 76.25 with chickpea flour showing the highest value. The sample containing amaranth flour presented high porosity (8.23%) with high number of large pores. Whereas, the number of pores was highest for teff flour with 209 pores. This is an indication of weak potential of amaranth flour in stabilizing gas cells. The fractal dimension ranged from 1.644 to 1.683, where amaranth flour showed the lowest fractal dimension. The pore characteristics evaluation, pore size distribution, number of pores, mean area and largest area of pores were influenced when gluten was reduced. Processed images proved that coalescence can be a cause of large pore development when gluten is partially removed.