ABSTRACT
Bread staling is a general term that describes a time-dependent loss in quality of flavor and texture. From a molecular perspective, the main structural components of a processed cereal product such as bread are macromolecular, including starch, cell wall polysaccharides, and cereal proteins. Starch consists of two main polysaccharides, one of which, amylose, is essentially linear; the other, amylopectin, is highly branched. Starch is usually processed by heating in the presence of water which disrupts the native crystalline structure, a phenomenon known as gelatinization. One of the essential elements of the gelatinization process is the loss of crystalline order. The addition of hydrophobic surfactants to starch-rich products would modify the retrogradation behavior by favoring the formation of single helical conformations. Depending on the conditions, this could be single helices in solution or an amorphous/crystalline complex.
