Azodicarbonamide, flour improvement

Chemical additives used in baking and not already present in flour in the required quantities are added to the dough in the form of a premix. Osborne [17] used NIR in a model experiment to determine three bread improvers (ascorbic acid, L-cysteine, and azodicarbonamide) in admixture in a starch diluent. Although the accuracy of each calibration was not satisfactory for their determination at the levels encountered in bakery premixes, the results were sufficient to indicate the potential of NIR for this type of application. This potential has been realized in the determination of nicotinamide in nutrient premixes where Osborne [18] obtained excellent results by NIR compared with high-performance liquid chromatography. The NIR calibration involved a ratio of second derivatives at 2138 nm, corresponding to a nicotinamide absorption band, and 2070 nm as a reference. 

Flours are commonly treated with additives and enrichment premixes to standardize quality and meet regulations. The treatments commonly consist of flour bleaching, maturing or aging, enzyme supplementation, and addition of the enrichment to supplement selected minerals and vitamins. Hard wheat flours are, in some instances, oxidized with azodicarbonamide, ascorbic acid and/or, in some countries, with potassium bromate in order to improve functionality. Soft wheat flours are in some instances chlorinated to produce bleached cake flours. The normal range of chlorination ranges... 

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