Utilization of Mixolab for assessment of durum wheat quality dependent on climatic factors Aleksandra Torbica a, * , Milana Dra  skovi  c b , Jelena Tomi  c a , Dejan Dodig c , Jelena Bo  skovi  c d , Veselinka Ze  cevi  c e a University of Novi Sad, Institute of Food Technology, Bulevar cara Lazara 1, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia b Technical College of Applied Sciences in Zrenjanin, ÐorCa Stratimirovi ca 23, 23000 Zrenjanin, Serbia c Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia d Faculty of Economics and Engineering Management in Novi Sad, University Business Academy in Novi Sad, Cve carska 2, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia e John Naisbitt University Belgrade, Faculty of Biofarming Ba cka Topola, 24300, Mar sala Tita 39, Serbia article info Article history: Received 26 August 2015 Received in revised form 4 March 2016 Accepted 21 April 2016 Available online 22 April 2016 Key words: Durum wheat Technological quality Mixolab Climatic factors abstract For durum wheat quality assessment the commonly used parameters are protein content, yellow pigment content, hectoliter mass, grain vitreousness, 1000-grain weight and sodium dodecyl sulphate sedimentation. For wheat processing quality, in this study the Mixolab, instrument of a newer generation was used. Mixolab has been largely used for a rapid assessment of the Triticum aestivum quality but there is no a lot of data about durum wheat quality assesment. Therefore, the aim of this work was to test its potential in the quality characterization of fourteen durum wheat breeding lines grown during two production years with different climate conditions. The obtained results showed significant differences in starch-amylase complex part of Mixolab curve between two studied years. Mixolab parameters C3, C4 and C5 were in line with Falling Number values and amylolytic activity of samples. Samples from 2013 production year with higher precipitation sum had lower values of C3, C4 and C5 parameters as well as Falling Number values and higher amylolytic activity. On contrary, protein part of Mixolab curves expressed differences in dependence of genotype. In comparison to the standard parameters of protein and starch quality of durum wheat, Mixolab provides more complete information in a shorter time frame. © 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction Durum wheat (Triticum durum) is grown worldwide forming 5e9% share in the global wheat crop. Durum wheat cultivation is not widespread when compared to bread wheat, due to low yield as well as special requirements regarding agro technical processes and climatic factors. Nevertheless, it is evident that interest in growing this kind of wheat still exists, because of its value as a staple in pasta-making industry, as well as bread staple. One more factor to be taken into account is consumers' increasing demands for high quality food (Sapirstein et al., 2007; Brankovi c et al., 2014). Durum wheat represents the most suitable raw material for the production of pasta thanks to its specific characteristics that posi- tively affect the quality of the end product in terms of adhesion, hardness, the product color and the loss of dry matter in cooking pasta. The most important quality factors include a high content of protein, starch, the presence of a yellow pigment that gives the pasta its characteristic color and proportion of grain vitreousness. All of these quality parameters are strongly influenced by the durum wheat variety (Brankovi c et al., 2014). The high level of quality standard uniformity of different varieties of durum wheat is of great importance for pasta making industry. However, the ge- notypes quality as well as other qualitative characteristics is subject to changes that occur as a consequence of changed climate condi- tions. There are numerous studies in which main research aims were to examine the impact of the particular wheat variety, cli- matic factors and their interactions on the quality of certain durum wheat quality parameters (Guasconi et al., 2011; Pinheiro et al., 2013; Ferrise et al., 2015). Rharrabti et al. (2003) examined the impact of climate conditions, genotype and their interaction on certain quality parameters of durum wheat and came to the conclusion that the dominant influence of climatic factors is evident in protein content, kernel vitreousness and 1000-grain weight. In the case of Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS) * Corresponding author. E-mail address: aleksandra.torbica@fins.uns.ac.rs (A. Torbica). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cereal Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcs http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcs.2016.04.012 0733-5210/© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Journal of Cereal Science 69 (2016) 344e350