ABSTRACT
This chapter presents general descriptions of some physical properties that are essential to the processing and handling of preprocessed cereal flours. These include particle size, particle size distribution, bulk density, compressibility, flowability, moisture content, mixture characteristics, caking and anticaking agents, as well as dust explosion concerns. Like many food powders, preprocessed cereal flours represent a wide range of powders different in their chemical and physical properties. Among all the different particle sizes, the sieve diameter is the one most often used to characterize flour sizes in the wheat milling process. Particle size plays an important role in wheat classification during milling. Representing particle size distribution curves by some mathematical functions is another way to characterize a powder system. Bulk density is an important physical property of preprocessed cereal flours because it plays an important role in storage, transportation, and marketing.
