Cereal Products: Traditional and Innovative Technologies

Program RAW MATERIALS: CEREALS The international and national cereal sector: structure, market and the major issues. Morphological, physical and chemical properties of the kernel of major cereal crops. The pseudocereals and immature grains: similarities and differences with cereals. Indices of quality and their evaluation, comparison of conventional and organic farming products. Criteria of (technological, commercial, etc..) classification for wheat and other cereals in Italy and worldwide. The major macromolecules in the grains: chemical, physical and structural features. Genomic and proteomic approaches for the improvement and the definition of the raw material quality. Problems associated to cereal grain storage. The phenomenon of germination: control and prevention. PRODUCTION OF SEMI-FINISHED PRODUCTS The milling sector in Italy. Description of the processes of wheat milling: differences between common and durum wheat milling diagrams. The milling of other cereals (corn, etc..). Assessment of technological/rheological properties of flours. Innovation of first processing processes (hulling, parboiling, etc..). Yield and process optimization. The wet milling to produce starch. The micronization and airclassification of flours. By-products utilization and enhancement: recovery of interesting components for secondary processing and / or for energy purposes industries. FINISHED-PRODUCTS PRODUCTION Pasta. The pasta-making process for dry pasta: flow-sheet, the kneading, extrusion, and drying steps; macroscopic and molecular phenomena related to pasta-makimg. Technological innovations. Mass balance and production yields. The production of fresh pasta: main differences with the technological process for dried pasta. Cooking pasta: phenomena and their intensity, evaluation of cooked pasta quality, by conventional (subjective and instrumental) and advanced methods. Bread and other leavened products: Classification. Dough characteristics: the role of water, flour macromolecular components and other ingredients, improvers and enzymes; mode of/types of kneading. The proofing and the formation of a crumb structure. Cooking: stabilization of the structure. The phenomena related to bread aging (staling), their evaluation and slowing. Product (low glycemic index breads, fiber-enriched breads, etc.) and processing (continuous processes, with use of pre-ferment, frozen bread production, etc..) innovations. Processing of gluten-free cereals (maize, rice, sorghum) and pseudocereals in products such as bread and pasta.