Eur Food Res Technol (2008) 226:1379–1387 DOI 10.1007/s00217-007-0668-y 123 ORIGINAL PAPER EVect of fermentation conditions on bread staling kinetics Manuel Gómez · Bonastre Oliete · Valentín Pando · Felicidad Ronda · Pedro A. Caballero Received: 27 November 2006 / Revised: 2 May 2007 / Accepted: 8 May 2007 / Published online: 6 June 2007  Springer-Verlag 2007 AbstractThe eVects of yeast dose, temperature and fer- mentation time on bread volume, bread density, bread tex- ture (Wrmness, cohesiveness, resilience, springiness and gumminess) and their change during staling were analysed. Thus, changes in the texture proWle (TP) parameters as bread aged were modelled and their initial values and their variation rate were obtained. In white and whole breads, the longer the fermentation time and the higher the yeast dose, the lower the Wrmness and the Wrming rate. The fermenta- tion temperature only aVected the initial Wrmness in whole breads. SigniWcant linear correlations were found between bread density and volume (r 2 = 0.94 in white bread; r 2 = 0.96 in whole bread), between density and the initial Wrm- ness (r 2 = 0.88 in white bread; r 2 = 0.61 in whole bread), and between the Wrst two parameters and the Wrming rate. Between density and Wrming rate r 2 obtained was 0.72 in white bread and 0.32 in whole bread and between volume and Wrming rate r 2 obtained was 0.58 in white bread and 0.29 in whole bread. KeywordsBread staling · Fermentation · Staling kinetics · Texture · Shelf-life Introduction Bread staling is a complicated process that involves loss of aroma, changes in mouth feel, loss of crumb softness and development of crumbliness. These changes trans form freshly baked bread into an unsaleable product. It is thought that 3% of the production of bread is returned for problems of staling in the shape of unsaleable bread [1]. The importance of this phenomenon has kept researchers busy for nearly 150 years and several com- prehensive reviews have been published on this topic [1–3]. Starch retrogradation has been considered for many years the main factor responsible for the loss crumb softness [4–6]. However several aspects of the bread staling process remain unclear and recent studies have stated that gluten [7], non-gluten proteins [8], lip- ids [9, 10], pentosans [11] and migration of moisture from the crumb to the crust [12, 13] play a signiWc role in bread staling. The majority of the studies focused on retarding the sta ing process deal with the use of enzymes and additives. - Amylases have beenwidelyused as antistaling agents either alone [4, 14–16]or in combination with other enzymes [17–19]. Additionally, other enzymes such as pro teases [17] or xylanases [20] have shown their capacity to reduce the Wrming of bread over prolonged storage. Amo the additives, emulsi Wers are the most regularly used ant taling agents [21, 22] but in the last few years studies abo the antistaling eVect of hydrocolloids [23–25] and ma dextrins [26–28] have become increasingly common. It is also known that the addition of Wbres reduces bread stali [29]. The investigations about the inXuence of the process- ing parameters on bread staling have been less numerous They are based on the study of the mixing and resti M. Gómez (&) · B. Oliete · F. Ronda · P. A. Caballero Área de Tecnología de los Alimentos, E.T.S. Ingenierías Agrarias, Universidad de Valladolid, 34004 Palencia, Spain e-mail: pallares@iaf.uva.es V. Pando Área de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, E.T.S. Ingenierías Agrarias, Universidad de Valladolid, 34004 Palencia, Spain