A A C C   2 0 0 0   A n n u a l   M e e t i n g

The status of flour tortillas, research results, unsolved problems, and preferences of manufactures will be discussed. Molding, sticking together of tortillas, opacity, diameter, thickness, uniformity of shape, and efficiency of production are problems being addressed daily by manufacturers. Tortillas are a unique bakery product since the dough is gluten-structured, like bread dough, chemically-leavened, not yeast-leavened, baked very quickly (<40 sec) and cooled to ambient temperature in less than 5 min. Shelf stability of preserved tortillas range from 10-180 days while bread is from 5-7 days. Laboratory-scale, hot-press, commercial equipment is utilized in the tortilla bake test where dough and tortillas are evaluated using subjective and objective methods. These methods have proven effective to differentiate flours, determine ingredient functionality and optimize processing parameters. Variability of wheat flour can cause changes in processing and product properties. Unbalanced formulas, undermixing, stiff dough, extreme hot-press, oven and cooling conveyor settings contribute to or cause many tortilla problems. Proper timing and amount of leavening reactions are required to insure more opaque (less translucent) tortillas. Approaches to resolve some of these problems will be presented and discussed.