Bread Staling: Updating the View

Staling of bread is cause of significant product waste in the world. We 26 reviewed the literature of last 10 years with the aim to give an up-to-date overview on 27 processing/storage parameters, antistaling ingredients, sourdough technology, and 28 measurement methods of the staling phenomenon. Many researchers have been focusing their 29 interest on the selection of ingredients able to retard staling, mainly hydrocolloids, waxy 30 wheat flours (WWF), and enzymes, but different efforts have been made to understand the 31 molecular basis of bread-staling with the help of various measurement methods. Results 32 obtained confirm the central role of amylopectin retrogradation and water redistribution 33 within the different polymers in determining bread-staling, but highlighted also the 34 importance of other flour constituents, such as proteins and non-starch polysaccharides. Data 35 obtained with thermal, spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray crystallography, and 36 colorimetry analysis have pointed out the need to encourage the use of one or more of these 37 techniques in order to better understand the mechanisms of staling. Results so far obtained 38 have provided new insight on bread staling, but the phenomenon has not been fully elucidated 39 so far. 40 41 List of chapters 42