-By, Rabia Tiryaki, MSc,
Bastak İnstruments, Turkey
Wheat,
the unique heritage offered to us by the soil and the staple food of mankind,
has occupied an important place in our nutrition chain for thousands of years.
Wheat and cereal products, which rank first among food sources, have played an
important role in shaping human history. The wheat plant, which is the most
important species that affects the ecological tolerance in the World, after
human beings, is planted on approximately six million square kilometers in the
world. In addition to being the main source of starch and energy, wheat
consumption has increased to 66.8 kg/person globally due to its protein,
vitamins, dietary fiber, phytochemicals and antioxidant activity necessary for
human health.
Wheat
and wheat products are the raw material of many foodstuffs such as flour,
semolina, bran, crumbs, gluten, germ and starch. It is estimated that there are
15 species and around 30 thousand wheat varieties. Economically, wheat
varieties are divided into three; durum (Triticum durum), bread (Triticum
aestivum) and biscuit (Triticum compactum). Bread, pasta, biscuits, cakes and
crackers with high commercial value are obtained from wheat and milling
products with different characteristics.
The wheat grain consists of a multi-layered structure; embryo, endosperm, aleurone layer,
pericarp (inner shell) and seed coat are some of these layers. In general,
wheat grain consists of bran (14.5%), endosperm (83%) and embryo (2.5%). The
purpose of milling wheat is to separate the flour or semolina (endosperm) from
the husk and embryo layers. Wheat grain is separated into bran, flour and germ
by milling, and the chemical composition of these separated parts varies.
It
has been determined that the beginning of the milling process was thousands of
years ago in Göbeklitepe, known as the zero point of history. It has been
observed that the homeland of wheat is the Mesopotamia region and especially
Şanlıurfa, and in many sources, the goddess of grain is depicted on cylinder
seals. In Mesopotamia, there is much evidence of a rich variety of bread,
and in Çatalhöyük, findings proving the existence of bread wheat dating back to
9 thousand years ago were obtained. The center of grinding has been identified
as Şanlıurfa Göbeklitepe, known as the zero point of history. It has been observed that the first grinding
technology was used in Şanlıurfa Göbeklitepe in Mesopotamia 12,000 years ago when human beings gathered wild wheat and barley varieties during the hunting
and gathering period and ground them with grinding stones. Apart from hunting,
scientists have also determined that they consumed fermented foods by leaving
the wild grains they grinded to fermentation.
Mills
are one of the oldest traditional production structures. Approximately 2300
years ago, rotary stone mills powered by human and animal power were
discovered. Grinding became an industry between 1850 and 1900 and its use on
this scale began in France and Hungary in the 19th century. Pneumatic conveying
became widely used in industry in the 20th century and computers were used to
control the process.
The
two main products obtained by milling wheat grain are wheat flour and bran. For
the miller processing the wheat, quality means that the wheat has a high yield
of white flour and milling quality but low energy consumption. Wheat flour
yield is an important characteristic not only for the milling industry but also
for wheat quality.
The
main processes of wheat processing in the milling industry can be categorized
under three headings. First stage: Preparation of wheat by receiving and
storing, cleaning and separating from foreign materials, ragging, washing and
tempering if necessary. In the second stage, the grinding process is carried
out with the help of crushing and refining rolls and sieving equipment, and
semolina-sandmeal purification devices. The last stage is flour storage and
blending. All these process steps performed during the processing of wheat
affect the qualitative and quantitative properties of the milling products to
be obtained.
Milling
techniques can be analyzed under the headings of dry, semi-wet and wet milling.
The purpose of dry milling is to produce high-quality refined or whole-grain
flour. Dry milling, or milling in general terms, involves the processing of
cereal products, especially wheat, which are annealed in the 14-18% moisture
range, into flour or semolina, more often using roller milling systems.
Semi-wet
milling products are used to produce corn grits used in breakfast cereals and
snack formulations. The moisture content of corn varies between 20-30% in the
milling process using pin/needle, hammer or roller milling systems. In the dry
and semi-wet milling technique, the size of grain products is reduced in a
controlled manner. Simultaneously, the anatomical parts are purified to obtain
flour or semolina as the main product and bran and germ as by-products.
Wet
milling is the industrial separation of the main components of cereals or
pseudo-cereals by physical, chemical, biochemical and mechanical processes. The
wet milling technique takes place in an abundant aqueous environment. Wet
milling technology of pseudo-cereal proteins can be performed under different
conditions to produce protein additives with high functional properties.
While
the main chemical components of the cereal grain cannot be obtained separately
in the dry milling technique, some grain parts of the cereal grain such as germ and
bran and some chemical components such as protein and starch can be obtained
separately in the wet milling technique. While wet milling requires the use of
large quantities of clean water, dry milling uses lower quantities of water
than wet milling.
In
the milling industry, the main objective is to provide the customer with a
product of specific quality and to efficiently separate the main parts of the
wheat grain (bran, embryo and endosperm). For producers who process wheat into
the final product, quality is the chemical, rheological, physical and
physicochemical properties that best suit the product.
Maintaining
the stability of important criteria for milling such as ash, yield and capacity
is important for the sustainability of mill performance. Factors affecting the
grinding performance in the mill are the distance settings of the rolls used in
the grinding process, sandblasting of the lyso rolls at certain intervals and
sieve performance.
By
using experimental milling methods (AACC 1983, 26-20, 26-21, 26-30), the commercial
milling performance of wheat can be determined with the help of laboratory
research mills. With Bastak brand laboratory mills, it is ensured that the
values of the raw materials to be milled in the factory are determined in
advance and necessary changes and arrangements are made in the process.
Bastak
Company: Bastak Brand 4000, 4500, 4500S, 1800, 1600, 1650, 1900 and 1900S model
roller, crushing, hammer, disc, laboratory mills, is the only manufacturer in
the world with such a rich variety of laboratory mills.
With
the aforementioned different types of mills, physical, chemical,
microbiological, physicochemical, photochemical, rheological and organoleptic
tests, especially moisture, can be performed in the grain, flour and feed
sectors. Apart from the sectors mentioned above, our mills are also used in
many other sectors required by the industry. In addition to the many different
laboratory mills Bastak manufactures, Bastak manufactures a total of 52 types
of laboratory equipment, exports to more than 150 countries without
interruption and has more than 20,000 devices in operation worldwide. Raw
materials and semi-finished products, whose economic value is known to be very
high in the global market, are classified with Bastak Laboratory Mills and
other quality control devices. Thus, Bastak automatic sampling systems, mills,
quality control devices and analyzes are used to direct the trade worth
billions of dollars in the world.
In
addition, Bastak brand laboratory mills have received the ICC standard and have
been offered to the use of all universities, academicians, research centers and
international quality control laboratories in the world. Thus, the results
obtained from these mills have become indisputably accepted in the world. With
the values obtained from these mills, starting from the analysis of the raw
material at the entrance of the factory, the quality control of the
semi-finished product and the finished product, if any, is carried out and a
negative situation is prevented in the production of millions of dollars.
In addition, the raw materials purchased by pre-production companies by giving millions of dollars are classified with the help of our laboratory mills with sensitive international standardization and their economic value is determined and according to these values, the products are stored correctly without mixing. Again, if the pre-production companies detect any quality problem in the products in their warehouses, they can use Bastak brand laboratory mills to determine the mixing ratios of the quality products and the poor quality products.
Source: Email/GFMM
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