SPROUTED WHEAT IN FLOUR

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21811, 17 June 1936, Page 10

SPROUTED WHEAT IN FLOUR

* EFFECTS ON AUCKLAND BAKEKS [THE PESSS Special Service ] AUCKLAND, June 16. Bread appearing in places as if it had been insufficiently baked has been a cause for complaint in the last month or two. The defect has been recognised by both bakers and millers, and is officially ascribed by the Wheat Research Institute to the use of sprouted wheat in milling, there being a big proportion of inferior milling wheat this season caused by the abnormally wet season in Canterbury and other wheat-growing districts. “Auckland bakers have been particularly affected,” said Mr S. Green, secretary of the Auckland Master Bakers’ Association, “because it has been their practice to use a greater proportion of Canadian flour to improve New Zealand flour than the 5 per cent, allowed by the regulations recently brought into force. Representations have been made to the Government for permission to increase the proportion of Canadian flour, and no doubt the Government will do whatever is considered necessary to remedy the trouble.” Mr Green pointed out that Mr E. W. Huliett. chief chemist of the Wheat Research Institute, had reported on the baking trouble experienced with New Zealand flour. Mr Huliett admitted that a good deal of milling wheat this season was sprouted in a varying degree. The most common defect in the flour was that the crumb of bread made from it appeared insufficiently baked, and was sticky to the touch, especially when the bread was taken from the oven when cool. The bread was rather doughy both to eat and to touch. In extreme cases the bread was like glue, and the crust also had a characteristic appearance. Mr Huliett said, however, that sprout damage should not be confused with weakness of the flour, and the customary method of correcting for weakness by the addition of Canadian or other strong flour was pf litTe avail. He suggested baking methods to deal with the trouble, one being the leaving out of malt, because the mixture reacted as if suffering from an overdose of malt. Another w r as to increase the salt content and to shorten the fermentation.