Fatty acids composition and rheology properties of wheat and wheat and white or brown rice flour mixture

Manufacturing of bread from rice flour only presents technological difficulty because the rice is gluten-free and gluten is the most important structure forming protein. By using wheat and rice flour mixture, this problem can be avoided, and end product is enriched by rice-oil constituents. In this paper fatty acids composition, with an emphasis on total saturated, and total unsaturated fatty acids, rheological and baking properties of wheat–rice flour mixture (70:30 w/w) were investigated. The results show that wheat–rice flour mixture has better fatty acids composition with higher content of stearic, arachidic, lignoceric, oleic, and phthalic acids compared to wheat flour. Also, wheat flour did not include myristic, arachidic, lignoceric and linolenic acids, so rice flour addition made fatty acids profile richer as number of constituents is higher, nine instead six. The content of total unsaturated fatty acids content was higher in wheat–brown rice flour mixture than in wheat flour and in wheat–white rice flour mixture. When rice flour was added to wheat flour the rheological properties were changed: flour mixture had less water absorption, less degree of softening, longer development time, higher gelatinization temperature, but better stability and finally, better quality number and group than wheat flour. So, the wheat and rice flour mixture can be considered as a good quality flour and can be used for making good quality wheat-rice bread and cake.