Food Research International 43 (2010) 21862192

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Food Research International

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / f o o d r e s

Gluten-free frozen dough: Inuence of freezing on dough rheological properties and

bread quality
S. Mezaize, S. Chevallier, A. Le-Bail, M. de Lamballerie
Oniris, GEPEA (UMR CNRS 6144), BP 82225, 44322 Nantes cedex 3, France

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 21 April 2010
Accepted 21 July 2010
Keywords:
Gluten-free bread
Freezing
Rheological properties

a b s t r a c t
The freezing process at different steps of breadmaking is widely used to improve fresh bread availability for
the consumer. The consequences of a freezing step on wheat dough and bread, and the way to reduce its
negative impacts have been studied for years. Nevertheless, few works report studies on gluten-free doughs
and breads. This work investigates the effect of unfermented frozen dough process on the properties of
gluten-free dough and the quality of bread. Rheological oscillation tests showed that viscoelastic properties
were unchanged for fresh and thawed doughs. However ow tests exhibit an effect of freezing on
consistency index and ow behaviour index. Regarding the quality of bread, gluten-free breads obtained by
frozen dough process had lower specic volumes and harder crumbs than conventional gluten-free breads
(unfrozen breads). Distribution of gas cells was more homogeneous with a freezing step. Crust colour
characteristics were also modied by the freezing step.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Coeliac disease (CD) is a pathology affecting the upper small
intestine mucosa due to an inappropriate immune response to gluten
protein fractions (Marsh, 1992), which are mainly present in wheat,
barley and rye. Patients with CD suffer from symptoms such as
diarrhoea, weight loss, and iron, folate or vitamins B12 and D
deciencies (Woodward, 2007). In Europe and the United States, the
prevalence of CD is estimated at 1 for 100200 inhabitants (Cook et al.,
2000; Hill et al., 2000). A strict gluten-free diet for life is the only
treatment for CD patients, to date, despite considerable scientic
advances in understanding CD and in preventing or curing its
manifestations (Niewinsky, 2008). Thus, research projects and industrial products developments and more precisely gluten-free breads have
been investigated for more than 40 years and show currently a rapid
growth. Gluten-free breads formulation researches concern mainly
gluten-free ours or starches (Mariotti, Lucisano, Pagani, & Ng, 2009;
Sciarini, Ribotta, Len, & Perez, 2008), hydrocolloids (Lazaridou, Duta,
Papageorgiou, Belc, & Biliaderis, 2007), protein sources (Marco & Rosell,
2008a,b), enzymes (Gujral & Rosell, 2004; Renzetti, Dal Bello, & Arendt,
2008), sourdough (Sterr, Weiss, & Schmidt, 2009), dietary bers (Korus,
Grzelak, Achremowicz, & Sabat, 2006) and minerals (Kiskini et al.,
2007).
Gluten proteins play a key role in the unique baking quality of wheat.
Due to the presence of gluten network, wheat dough is characterized by

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: marie.de-lamballerie@oniris-nantes.fr (M. de Lamballerie).
0963-9969/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2010.07.030

unique viscoelastic properties, allowing the dough to retain gas

produced mainly during the fermentation step. Thus, by using glutenfree ingredients, the gluten-free breads available on the market present
poor organoleptic quality, not comparable to wheat ones: breads are
compact and tasteless, with a light crust which merges with a crumbling
crumb (Gallagher, Gormley, & Arendt, 2004). Moreover, gluten-free
breads exhibit faster rate of staling when compared to wheat breads
(Kadan, Robinson, Thibodeaux, & Pepperman, 2001). Shelf-life of these
breads is a serious task and therefore represents a quality criterion in
studies aiming at improving gluten-free bread formulations (McCarthy,
Gallagher, Gormley, Schober, & Arendt, 2005; Sciarini et al., 2008;
Onyango, Unbehend, & Lindhauer, 2009).
An alternative to get fresh gluten-free breads could be to insert a
freezing step during the breadmaking process. It has been used for
long in wheat breadmaking. Food industry uses a freezing process to
delay some breadmaking steps and to make available fresh bread in
retail stores, after baking, or to make available a frozen product that
the consumer can bake at home when he needs it. Nevertheless, the
freezing process causes physical and chemical damages in the product
(dough, part baked bread or bread). Such a treatment on dough can
cause dough weakening, a decrease in gas retention capacity and a
reduced yeast activity (Inoue, Sapirstein, & Bushuk, 1995; Inoue &
Bushuk, 1991; Angioloni, Balestra, Pinnavaia, & Dalla Rosa, 2008).
These damages are responsible for defects in bread quality, such as a
decrease in bread specic volume, an increase in crumb hardness and
in crust aking (Giannou & Tzia, 2007). The freezing implementation
and the wheat bread formulas development have been the subject of
numerous researches in order to understand the impact of freezing
and to limit it on bread quality. In the present study, the freezing

S. Mezaize et al. / Food Research International 43 (2010) 21862192

process was applied to a gluten-free dough in order to study impact of

freezing on dough rheological properties and on gluten-free bread
quality.

2187

dough. For surface temperature recording, the thermocouple (0.08 mm

diameter) extremity was delicately positioned on the dough surface.
2.3. Bread characteristics

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Breadmaking
The same basic formulation was used for the conventional gluten-free
bread making (abbreviated CV) and the frozen gluten-free dough bread
making (abbreviated FD). The formulation used comes from a previous
study (Mezaize, Chevallier, Le-Bail, & de Lamballerie, 2009). The
formulation is shown in Table 1. Rice our and corn our were provided
by Livrac (Haute-Goulaine, France) and buckwheat our by Bio Moulin
(Boussay, France). Potato starch came from KMC (Brande, Denmark) and
corn starch from Tate and Lyle (Aaist, Belgium). Compressed yeast, salt
and sunower oil were obtained from local commercial sources (Nantes,
France). Inulin was provided by Puratos (Groot-Bijgaarden, Belgium) and
guar gum by Danisco (Zaandam, The Netherlands).
Flours, starches, inulin, guar gum and salt were blended at speed 1
(46 rpm) for 10 s in a mixer (Kitchenaid, St Joseph, MI, USA).
Compressed yeast was incorporated and the ingredients were blended
again at speed 1 for 10 s. Sunower oil and tap water (at 20 C) were
added and all ingredients were mixed at speed 2 (82 rpm) for 2 min.
Dough pieces (60 g) were weighed and placed in individual silicon
mufn-like pans (40 mm height; 75 mm top diameter; 55 mm bottom
diameter). In the conventional breadmaking, dough pieces were
proofed for 50 min in a fermentation cabinet (Hengel, Le Coteau,
France) at 40 C and 95% humidity. Then breads were baked (oven
condo Miwe, Arnstein, Germany) at 200 C for 40 min with 0.5 L of
steam at the start of baking. Breads were cooled at room temperature for
1 h and then placed in sealed plastic bags at room temperature for 1 h
before analysis. In the frozen dough breadmaking, dough pieces were
frozen in sealed plastic bag in a blast freezer cabinet at 30 C for
30 min and were stored 7 days at 18 C. Then, they were thawed at
room temperature for 1 h, before being proofed without sealed bags.
Proong, baking and cooling steps were carried out exactly in the same
conditions than for conventional breadmaking. Breadmaking was
duplicated for each process tested.
2.2. Dough temperature recording
Core temperature and surface temperature of the dough pieces were
recorded throughout the breadmaking process, from the end of mixing
to the end of cooling, for the conventional breadmaking and for the
frozen dough breadmaking. K type thermocouples, adapted on mufnlike pans and connected to a data logger (SA32 AOIP, Ris Orangis,
France) measured temperature with an acquisition frequency of 15 s.
For core temperature recording, the thermocouple (0.13 mm diameter)
was maintained in a vertical position thanks to a small cylinder attached
to the pan base and allow to measure temperature in the centre of the

Table 1
Gluten-free bread recipe.
Ingredients

Quantity (%)

Rice our
Corn our
Buckwheat our
Corn starch
Potato starch
Inulin
Guar gum
Salt
Compressed yeast
Sunower oil
Water

22.8
7.2
2.5
14.7
2.1
1.2
0.9
0.8
2.6
3.0
42.2

Breads from the two breadmaking processes were evaluated for their
dry matter content, specic volume, crumb characteristics (hardness
and gas cells size distribution) and crust colour. Specic volume was
measured on 3 breads using a laser volumeter (Texvol Instruments,
Villeuneuve-la-Garenne, France). For dry matter determination, 3 g of
crushed bread was weighed into aluminum dishes and dried for 24 h in
an oven (Memmert, Schwabach, Germany) at 103 C. Five replicates
were carried out. Crumb characteristics were assessed using a universal
testing machine (Lloyd Instruments LR5K, Southampton, UK). A
compression test with a cylindrical probe (20 mm diameter) was
performed. 15 mm-thick slices were cut from the middle of the bread
using an electric slicer (Graef, Arnsberg, Germany). Crumb was
compressed to 40% of its initial height at 5 mm.s1. Tests were
performed on 2 slices from 4 different breads. Images of sliced breads
were captured using a atbed scanner (HP, Palo Alto, USA) in grey levels
at 350 dpi. A specic macro developed for bread gas cells identication,
with Image J software (NIH, USA), was applied on these images,
including the application of several lters to enhance the contrast
between cells and cell walls and an automatic thresholding based on the
k-means algorithm. From the area of each gas cell, the equivalent
diameter (in surface) was calculated. Thus, the mean diameter of each
slice for each type of breadmaking could be calculated. The dispersion of
the gas cell diameter distribution was estimated by the variance of all
cells equivalent diameter. Crust color was measured on the top surface
of 4 breads using a Minolta chromameter (Minolta CR 400, Osaka,
Japan). Lightness L*, saturation C* and hue h were recorded.
2.4. Dough fundamental rheology
Rheological measurements were performed on a controlled stress
rheometer AR 1000 (TA Instruments, Guyancourt, France), tted with
parallel plate geometry consisting of a 40 mm diameter serrated at
plate. Samples of fresh dough or thawed dough were prepared as
previously described for the breadmaking but without yeast. Dough was
placed between the parallel plates. The gap was adjusted to 1 mm and
the dough excess was trimmed of very carefully. The system was
covered by parafn oil to coat the outer edges to prevent the sample
from drying. The dough was allowed to rest for 5 min so that the residual
stress could relax. Two types of test were carried out: oscillation test and
ow test. First, a frequency sweep from 0.1 and 100 Hz was performed
at a constant strain of 0.1% at 20 C. Preliminary strain sweep at 1 Hz
indicated that 0.1% was included in the linear viscoelastic region. The
dough structure was evaluated by comparison of loglog plots of G and
G with frequency. Results of frequency sweeps test are the average of
three measurements. In the second test, a steady state ow was
performed at shear rates from 0.02 s1 to 10 s1. Each experimental
point was reached within an established time of 1 min. Steady state ow
curves were obtained for different temperatures: temperature was
maintained constant during the test at 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 C. Apparent
viscosity is reported as the mean of three replicates. The ow behaviour
of dough was evaluated by comparison of loglog plots of apparent
viscosity app with shear rate . The curves were tted with the power
law equation (Eq. (1)):

n1

app = K

where K (Pa sn) is the consistency index and n (dimensionless) the

ow behaviour index. Power law model was chosen among several
models, as it ts the best to our data.

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S. Mezaize et al. / Food Research International 43 (2010) 21862192

more rapid at the surface of the dough. During baking, differences

between core and surface temperatures were important. The surface
temperature was higher than core temperature and more sensitive to
the oven regulation. The surface temperature reached 150 C at the end
of baking. The core temperature increased rapidly (less than 10 min)
from 40 C to 98 C, the highest temperature attained into the dough;
this plateau being explained by the vaporisation of a part of the water
contained into the dough. During chilling, both core and surface
temperatures were at room temperature in 2 h, thus allowing to test
the breads characteristics. In unfermented frozen dough breadmaking,
18 C was reached in the gluten-free dough core during the rst hours
of storage. The freezing step at 30 C and the frozen storage at 18 C,
applied in this study, is a protocol currently used in unfermented frozen
dough wheat bread process (Poinot et al., 2008). Gluten-free dough got
thawed in 1 h at ambient temperature. Then, gluten-free dough
temperature increased from 4 C to 40 C during fermentation; 40 C
being reached after 4748 min of fermentation. By comparison, this
temperature was reached by the fresh dough after 40 min of
fermentation. During baking and chilling, core and surface temperature
were similar to those obtained in conventional breadmaking.
Fig. 1. Temperature of gluten-free dough during the conventional breadmaking starting
from the end of the mixing step.

3.2. Viscoelastic properties of gluten-free doughs

The effect of freezing on the viscoelastic properties of gluten-free
dough was assessed by frequency sweep and ow measurements.

2.5. Statistical analysis

Statistical analysis were performed with Statgraphics Plus 5.1
Software (Statistical Graphics Corp., Princeton NJ, USA) on all
variables using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at a signicance
level of 0.05.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Gluten-free dough temperature during breadmaking
Gluten-free dough temperature was recorded during the conventional breadmaking and the unfermented frozen dough breadmaking;
results are presented respectively in Figs. 1 and 2. In conventional
breadmaking, gluten-free dough temperature increased gradually
during fermentation from 19 C to 40 C, the increase being slightly

3.2.1. Oscillation measurements

Frequency sweep results are presented in Fig. 3. The values of elastic
modulus G and viscous modulus G are quite similar in range to those
reported earlier for wheat dough and also rice dough (Ribotta, Perez,
Len, & An, 2004; Sivaramakrishnan, Senge, & Chattopadhyay, 2004).
At the studied frequencies, G were higher than G, meaning that glutenfree dough had a behaviour more elastic than viscous. Similar behaviour
was identied by Sivaramakrishnan et al. (2004), Gujral and Rosell
(2004) and Marco and Rosell (2008a,b) on a gluten-free formulation
made with rice our. Moreover, the increase of G and in a lesser extend
G with the frequency corresponds to the characteristics of a weak gel.
This behaviour was also identied by Lorenzo, Zaritzky, and Califano
(2008) and Korus, Witczak, Ziobro, and Juszczak (2009) on gluten-free
doughs. On the range of frequencies tested, there were no signicant
differences of elastic and viscous moduli between the fresh dough and

Fig. 2. Temperature of gluten-free dough during the unfermented frozen dough breadmaking starting from the end of the mixing step.

S. Mezaize et al. / Food Research International 43 (2010) 21862192

2189

Fig. 3. Mechanical spectra of gluten-free dough. Fresh dough: G , G , thawed dough: G , G .

the thawed dough. Thus, in these experimental conditions, no effect of

freezing was identied on gluten-free dough: the freezing step and the
storage at 18 C for one week did not affect these viscoelastic
properties of the gluten-free dough. These similarities of elastic and
viscous moduli between fresh and thawed gluten-free doughs are
corroborating with the work on rheological properties of wheat dough
of Ribotta et al. (2004). They found that storage at 18 C should be
longer to observe differences in elastic and viscous moduli between
fresh dough and thawed dough; and the longer the storage was, the
bigger were the differences. On the contrary, although Angioloni et al.
(2008) found similarly that the longer the frozen storage was, the lower
were the viscoelastic attributes G and G, they concluded that the effect
of freezing was particularly concentrated in the rst 15 days of storage,
based on measurements carrying out at day 0 and day 15. Nevertheless,
Inoue and Bushuk (1991) showed that doughs without yeast were less

sensitive to freezing, meaning that even if no differences between

viscoelastic properties measured on dough without yeast were found,
differences on bread characteristics can be evidenced.
3.2.2. Flow measurements
Flow curves at different temperatures are presented in Figs. 4 and 5.
The apparent viscosity decreases when the shear rate increases
whatever the temperature is. Flow curves appear similar between the
fresh and thawed gluten-free doughs, meaning that gluten-free dough
behaviour at different temperatures is not modied by a freezing step.
At 20 C, a slope rupture occurs in the loglog ow curve at 0.25 s1.
Below a shear rate of 0.25 s1, the apparent viscosity decreases slightly
when the shear rate increases. Above 0.25 s1, the apparent viscosity
decreases strongly when the shear rate increases. Thus, at 20 C, glutenfree dough is more sensitive to high shear rate values and relatively

Fig. 4. Flow curves for fresh dough at different tested temperatures (x: 20 C, w: 30 C, : 40 C, : 50 C, : 60 C).

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Fig. 5. Flow curves for thawed dough at different tested temperatures (x: 20 C, w: 30 C, : 40 C, : 50 C, : 60 C).

insensible regarding the low shear rate values. On the other hand, at
higher temperatures, gluten-free dough is also sensitive to the low shear
rate values: higher slope was then observed.
A power law model was applied to every set of ow data. Power law
models tted to the ow curves of the gluten-free dough are presented in
Table 2. Concerning the fresh gluten-free dough, consistency index K
decreased by 35% between 20 C and 40 C. Moreover, the ow behaviour
index n also decreased very slightly when temperature increased,
respectively 0.31, 0.30 and 0.28 for 20, 30 and 40 C, temperature range
corresponding to the fermentation step. A shear-thinning behaviour of the
gluten-free dough was deduced from these values. Similar ow behaviour
index were found in rice batter with ow behaviour index of 0.421
(Turabi, Sumnu, & Sahin, 2008) and in wheat dough, ranging from 0.1 to
0.29 (Rouill, DellaValle, Lefebvre, Sliwinski & vanVliet, 2005). PruskaKedzior et al. (2008) showed by ow experiments at 25 C, for gluten-free
dough with different formulations, that the best gas retention capacity
was obtained for a gluten-free dough having a consistency index of
338.3 Pa sn and a ow behaviour index of 0.37. Elements of understanding
were provided concerning the capacity of the dough to deform itself
during the phase of the gas cell growing. Their conclusions, although
moderated by the small number of gluten-free formulations tested,
pointed out that a link can exist between these rheological parameters and
the dough deformation ability and thus the gas retention capacity.
Similar values to those obtained by Pruska-Kedzior et al. (2008)
were identied in this work at 30 C, being the temperature in real
breadmaking condition where the expansion of the dough was the most
important as observed with MRI measurements (data not shown). From
40 C to 60 C, the consistency index increases very slightly, while the
ow behaviour index decreases strongly. This temperature range was
attained during the rst minutes of baking, since a temperature of 60 C

is reached in 6 min into the dough (Figs. 1 and 2). This phase led to a
settling of the structure of the gluten-free bread as observed with MRI
measurements (data not shown). A hypothesis to explain this settling
during the rst minutes of baking is the previously described
viscoelastic modications occurring in the dough, quantied by the
consistency index and the ow behaviour index.
Concerning the thawed gluten-free dough, regardless the temperature
of the test, the consistency index was lower than that of fresh dough,
about 70 Pa sn. Moreover, the ow behaviour index was also lower when
the gluten-free dough was frozen, about 0.05. The gluten-free thawed
dough was then less consistent and with a shear-thinning behaviour
more pronounced than the fresh gluten-free dough. The presence of a
freezing step leads to a gluten-free dough with modied rheological
properties. As the gas retention capacity and tolerance to fermentation
step of the dough depend partly on its rheological properties (Kokelaar &
Prins, 1995), a change of these properties due to the freezing step can be
related to a gluten-free dough with limited gas retention capacity.

3.3. Bread characteristics

Gluten-free breads obtained by conventional process (CV) and by
unfermented frozen dough process (FD) were evaluated for their dry
matter content, specic volume, crumb characteristics and crust color.
Results are presented in Table 3.

Table 3
Physical characteristics for gluten-free breads obtained by conventional process and
unfermented frozen dough process (mean value standard deviation). Different letters
are used to identify statistical differences between processes.
Breadmaking process

Table 2
Power law models tted to the ow curves of the gluten-free dough.
Temperature

20 C
30 C
40 C
50 C
60 C

Gluten-free fresh dough

Gluten-free thawed dough

k (Pa sn)

k (Pa sn)

426.1
321.6
272.6
291.7
323.3

0.31
0.30
0.28
0.19
0.05

0.76
0.77
0.88
0.92
0.61

365.6
307.9
237.5
231.7
269.1

0.26
0.26
0.24
0.12
0.02

0.77
0.75
0.83
0.80
0.62

Bread dry matter content (%)

Specic volume (cm3/g)
Crumb hardness (N)
Gas cells diameter (mm)
Gas cells diameter variance
Lightness L*
Saturation C*
Hue h

Conventional
(CV)

Unfermented frozen dough

(FD)

63.1 0.79 (a)

2.95 0.132 (a)
1.81 0.138 (a)
1.63 0.124 (a)
4.690
68.7 0.31 (a)
21.1 0.38 (a)
83.7 0.21 (a)

62.3 0.72 (a)

2.25 0.071 (b)
2.48 0.222 (b)
1.57 0.039 (a)
3.473
69.0 0.94 (a)
22.2 0.40 (b)
83.1 0.33 (b)

S. Mezaize et al. / Food Research International 43 (2010) 21862192

Bread dry matter content was not statistically different for the
gluten-free breads obtained by the two processes.
Concerning bread specic volume, the freezing step induced a
decrease in bread specic volume. FD bread was 24% less voluminous
than CV bread. This negative impact of freezing dough was largely
discussed for wheat breads (El-Hady, El-Samahy, Seibel, & Brmmer,
1996; Sharadanant & Khan, 2003; Giannou & Tzia, 2007; Dodic et al.,
2007; Mandala, Kapetanakou, & Kostaropoulos, 2008). A decrease in
bread specic volume of 21% was observed by El-Hady et al. (1996)
between CV bread and bread produced with a frozen dough stored at
20 C during one week. A decrease in bread specic volume of only
5% was observed by Dodic et al. (2007) between CV bread and bread
produced with a frozen dough stored at 18 C during one week.
Moreover, a loss of specic volume due to the freezing step is critical
for gluten-free bread, because of the small specic volume usually
obtained for this type of bread. Indeed, the specic volume of wheat
bread is at least twice higher than the specic volume of gluten-free
bread, which is explained by the presence of the gluten network. Even
if a gluten-free dough is able to retain less gas than a wheat dough,
resulting in spectacular differences of specic volume in the nal
bread, a part of the gas produced by yeast is nevertheless retained into
the gluten-free dough. Such a structure can also be sensitive to a
freezing step, thus altering its gas retention capacity. In wheat dough,
not only the gluten network is physically damaged by the presence of
ice crystals, but wheat starch also is altered by a freezing step
(Berglund, Shelton, & Freeman, 1991). The gluten-free dough studied
in the present work, contains different sources of starches such as rice,
corn, potato and buckwheat and starch content is higher in glutenfree dough than in wheat dough, and yet damages on starches can
occur during freezing as Gelinas, Deaudelin, and Grenier (1995) show
it in a dough containing only wheat starch, even if the starch nature is
different. Starch is able to absorb more water when damaged, leading
to water redistribution into the dough. Thus a weight increase and in
consequence a bread specic volume decrease would be observed
(Sharadanant & Khan, 2003). However, this point needs to be
qualied, because yeast activity can be also modied by the presence
of a freezing step. In one hand, yeast survival rate is reduced by
freezing. Viable cells number is signicantly decreased by freezing and
storage at sub-zero temperature as Ribotta, Len, and An (2003)
illustrated it in wheat dough. On the other hand, during fermentation
step in our experimental conditions, gluten-free dough is not at the
same temperature depending on the breadmaking process used. The
temperatures range appropriate to yeast CO2 production attained by
the gluten-free dough occurred less rapidly in unfermented frozen
dough process than in conventional process, thus yeast activity was
probably less efcient in such a process. These facts led to a global
decrease in gas production. However, as seen in the previous
paragraph, some viscoelastic properties were inuenced by freezing
step, considering that gluten-free doughs used for these rheological
tests were conducted without yeast. Then, effect of freezing on bread

2191

specic volume could be explained not only by changes in gas

production by yeast, but also by changes occurring into the glutenfree matrix as described previously by the assumed modication of
the gas retention capacity of the dough.
Concerning crumb hardness, FD bread crumb is 40% harder than CV
bread crumb. Similar results were found on wheat doughs (Sharadanant
& Khan, 2003; Bhattacharya, Langstaff, & Berzonsky, 2003; Giannou &
Tzia, 2007). An increase of crumb hardness around 15% was found by
Bhattacharya et al. (2003) for breads obtained from doughs stored one
month at28 C. In the present study, crumb hardness is also
conversely correlated to bread specic volume (R = 0.905). Crumb
characteristics were also evaluated concerning the gas cells distribution.
Fig. 6 shows pictures of bread slices obtained by CV process and FD
process. Distribution is more heterogeneous for CV breads than for FD
breads. This observation was conrmed by image analysis. Although no
statistical difference of mean cells diameter is identied between the 2
breadmaking processes, the variance of the cells diameter is higher for
CV bread than for FD breads, respectively 4.69 and 3.47. This result
indicates that, the gas cells distribution is stretched for CV breads, crumb
being made of small and large gas cells, while gas cells distribution is
homogeneous for FD breads. This can be explained by the fact that ice
crystals formed during the freezing process can damage physically the
dough structure; thus the thawed dough cannot retain in an identical
way the gas produced during the fermentation.
Concerning crust colour, no statistical difference is found between
lightness values L* for CV bread crust and FD bread crust. At the studied
breadmaking conditions, there is no effect of freezing on L*. Nevertheless, saturation C* and hue values h are statistically different for the
breads obtained by the 2 breadmaking processes. FD bread crust colour
is purer than CV bread crust, saturation values being respectively at
22.02 0.45 and 21.07 0.44. FD bread crust is also characterized by a
global shade more orange than CV bread crust, hue value being
respectively at 83.14 0.31 and 83.74 0.22. Sharadanant and Khan
(2003) showed also a signicant impact of frozen storage of wheat
dough on bread crust colour characteristics, although affected parameters were not the same as in our study. They identied, on wheat
dough, that bread crust lightness was reduced from 56.44 to 53.77 by a
frozen storage of one day, and from 56.44 to 51.07 by a frozen storage of
4 weeks. Saturation was not modied by a frozen storage. However,
similar results were found concerning hue values: with a frozen storage
of the dough, bread crust was characterized by a more orange shade
than bread crust obtained by conventional breadmaking. The availability of water is an important parameter in Maillard reaction, determining
crust colour. It had been shown that freezing can induce water
redistribution into the wheat dough matrix due to the increase of
damaged starch caused by water crystallisation (Berglund et al., 1991).
This phenomenon could occur also in gluten-free dough made of
different starch sources. This water redistribution into the gluten-free
dough can thus modify the crust colour development and then explain
such differences between CV bread crust and FD bread crust.

Fig. 6. Pictures of breads slices obtained by conventional process and unfermented frozen process.

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S. Mezaize et al. / Food Research International 43 (2010) 21862192

4. Conclusion
Gluten-free dough properties and gluten-free bread characteristics
were inuenced by a freezing step in the gluten-free breadmaking.
Although no differences were identied between fresh dough and
thawed dough concerning elastic and viscous moduli, G and G, on
the contrary, parameters of the power law model tted to the ow
curves, consistency index, k, and ow behaviour index, n, were
reduced by the presence of a freezing step in breadmaking process;
then gas retention capacity could be modied by frozen storage.
Moreover, the freezing step had a negative impact on the gluten-free
bread characteristics: gluten-free breads were denser, crumb was
harder and with homogenous gas cells distribution, crust colour was
modied when a freezing step was introduced in the breadmaking
process. Thus, the physical characteristics of FD bread are less close to
the French bread reference ones than the CV bread ones. Particularly,
differences observed in bread specic volume can be explained by the
sensitiveness of yeast regarding freezing, but also by the change in
rheological properties of the gluten-free dough. Notably, the glutenfree dough consistency was reduced and the gluten-free dough
behaviour was less shear-thinning with a freezing step.
By comparison with wheat dough, gluten-free dough is also
inuenced by the freezing step, in spite of the absence of a gluten
network. Nevertheless, the unfermented frozen dough breadmaking
process shows possibilities concerning its application on gluten-free
dough. Currently, work on gluten-free formulation is now underway
to minimise the effect of freezing on the gluten-free dough.
Acknowledgements
This study was carried out with the nancial support of the
Commission of the European Communities, FP6, Thematic Area Food
quality and safety, FOOD-2006-36302 EU-FRESH BAKE. The authors
would like to emphasize that this article does not necessarily reect
the views of this commission and do not anticipate the Commission's
future policy in this area. The technical assistance of Stphane Qullec
from CEMAGREF (Rennes, France) for MRI measurements is gratefully
acknowledged.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2010.07.030.
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