Campden BRI is inviting companies to join a club project to investigate the solvent retention capacity (SRC) method to assess quality and end-use performance of soft wheat and their flours. The project will focus on two end-products: biscuit and wafer.

The SRC method measures the ability of a flour to retain a range of solvents (water, lactic acid, sodium carbonate and sucrose) as a means of evaluating multiple aspects of wheat and flour quality. Each solvent relates to different characteristics influencing the flour functionality.

The project will, says the company, be of interest to breeders, millers and food manufacturers who use soft wheat as a main ingredient.

Clothilde Baker, club project leader, said: “Robust analytical methods to identify flour properties that drive end-product performance are essential. Previous work carried out as part of an Innovate UK project identified that the SRC method may have potential to differentiate between soft wheat flours that provide good and poor end-product performance. The project will investigate the potential of this method further. We are particularly looking for companies who find that their existing criteria to assess soft wheat/flour are not always adequate and who are looking for new ways to identify soft wheat flours suitability for a given process or end-product.”

The pre-competitive research will be steered by the club of participating companies. Each member will be able to take advantage of the findings for their own commercial benefit.

The club project will start in early 2019 and last for two years.