Influence of wheat milling on low-hydration bread quality developed by sheeting rolls.

It is well known that milling influences the characteristics of flour and products made from it. This article analyzed the influence of milling on the quality of low-hydration bread. In general, milling influenced the quality of these products more than the type of wheat selected. Among the various mill streams, the last break and reduction streams produced lower quality bread and must be eliminated in milling. These streams had a higher protein and ash content, showing the presence of components of the outer layers of the grain. The flour was able to absorb more water, but had less extensibility in kneading and the dough generated was weaker due the poorer quality of its proteins and the influence of elements from the outer layers. Thus, bread made from these streams had smaller volume, had a firmer texture and had both darker crumb and crust. These differences, along with the effect of the kind of flour on the flavor and aroma of the bread, made it less acceptable than flour from the rest of the streams studied.

Effect of weaning status and storage time under vacuum upon physical characteristics of meat of the Rubia Gallega breed.

Seven to nine months old calves are the typical production of Rubia Gallega, which is the most important beef breed in Spain. A study about the influence of weaning status and vacuum storage time on veal quality characteristics is needed. The muscle longissimus thoracis from 22 non-weaned (NW) and 21 weaned (W) calves at 1day post-slaughter, and vacuum packaged for 7 and 14 days were analysed. NW showed higher yellowness and hue values than W but lower pigment concentration. The differences disappeared at longer storage times. The redness, yellowness, hue and chroma increased with aging, but the pigment concentration, expressible juice and toughness decreased with aging. Principal component analysis showed that colour variables were the most determinant characteristics in quality variation. The canonical discriminant analysis separated the samples in three groups: 1 day post-slaughter W, 1day post-slaughter NW, and vacuum packaged W and NW.

Nutritional characteristics of veal from weaned and unweaned calves: Discriminatory ability of the fat profile.

The chemical and nutritional composition of the Longissimus thoracis muscle from 58 'Rubia Gallega' breed animals was measured to differentiate veal of weaned from unweaned calves. Fat, protein, ash, and moisture contents of muscle were determined by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) and the fatty acid (FA) profiles were determined by gas chromatography. Calves suckled their mothers at pasture followed by an indoor period. The weaned group was finished on concentrates indoors, whereas the unweaned group was continued suckling with a complementary concentrate diet, also indoors. The unweaned group had higher total FA (p<0.001), monounsaturated (MUFA) (p<0.05) and polyunsaturated (PUFA) (p<0.05) FA contents, lower saturated FA (SFA) (p<0.01) concentration, and a higher PUFA:SFA ratio (p<0.05) than the weaned group. A multivariate step discriminant procedure selected nine variables out of 38 tested from the FA profile. The SFA fraction lower than C11 followed by the margaric FA and the n-6:n-3 PUFA ratio were the most discriminating variables for separating the weaning classes, regardless of the gender. Calibration and cross-validation misclassification errors were 0% and 1.67%, respectively. A more powerful discriminant function was estimated for males only, where the SFA fraction lower than C11 followed by tricosanoic, and margaric FA were the most discriminant, with zero misclassification errors.

Effect of pasture finishing on the meat characteristics and intramuscular fatty acid profile of steers of the Rubia Gallega breed.

The Rubia Gallega cattle breed is the most important stock for beef production in Spain. A study about the influence of feeding systems on beef quality is needed. Comparison of the effect of a pasture finishing system and an indoors finishing system (maize silage and concentrate) on the meat quality and intramuscular fatty acid profile of Rubia Gallega steers (slaughter age 30 months) was determined using samples of Longissimus thoracis muscle. There were no differences between treatments in meat pH, drip loss, water holding capacity, cooking loss and muscle colour. Meat from pasture-fed steers was more tender than meat from indoors finished ones at 24 h post-mortem, but differences disappeared at 7 days. Subcutaneous fat of grass-fed steers showed higher yellowness at 24 h and 7 days post-mortem and lower brightness at 7 days post-mortem than indoors finished ones. Intramuscular fat of indoors finished steers presented higher concentrations of C18:2 and a less favourable ratio of n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids than pasture finished steers.