Cereal Chem 68:401-405   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Physical Properties and Processing Quality of Durum Wheat Fractions Recovered from a Specific Gravity Table.

J. E. Dexter, R. Tkachuk, and K. H. Tipples. Copyright 1991 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Thirteen samples of Canada Western Amber Durum wheat of varying grade from the 1989 harvest were fractionated on a specific gravity table. The fractions recovered exhibited a broad range of physical properties reflected by variable test and kernel weights and proportions of shrunken, broken and sprouted kernels. The most severely sprouted, broken, and damaged kernels were concentrated in the lest dense fractions. This allowed the isolation of denser fractions with greatly reduced alpha-amylase activity and improved visual quality compared with the unfractionated wheat. The only negative quality attribute of the denser fractions was lower protein content. The superior end-use quality of the denser fractions was confirmed by milling and by evaluation of spaghetti making of representative fractions. For each wheat series evaluated, from the least to the most dense fraction, milling yield improved progressively, with a concomitant improvement in semolina color and a decrease in semolina ash content and speckiness. The denser fractions also exhibited improved spaghetti color.