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How to replace chlorination of flour: New, and not-so-new, approaches to modifying functionality.
C. J. LIN (1). (1) The Mennel Milling Co., Fostoria, OH, U.S.A.

Chlorine as a flour improver dates back to late 1800’s and it continues to be widely used in soft wheat flour milling in North of America. It’s well documented that chlorination of wheat flour imparts cakes the volume, fine crumb grain, good symmetry, uniform texture, and superior organoleptic characteristics. In spite of the research efforts, the functionalities of flour chlorination in cake baking are yet to be fully elucidated. Recent safety concern on chlorination of flour has led ban of chlorine use in flour milling in some countries around the world. Research efforts that have been made over the last forty years have met challenges to find true replacement of flour chlorination for high ratio cakes. The presentation will review the flour chlorination chemistry, cake baking requirements, the alternatives of flour chlorination for high ratio cake, and challenges of these alternative approaches for complete replacement of flour chlorination for cake baking.

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