Utility of CIE tristimulus system in measuring the objective crumb color of high-fiber toast bread formulation

The major objectives of this study were to develop high-fiber toast bread f ormulations with lighter crumb color and to evaluate the CIE tristimulus sy stem to measure the color of crumb as affected by the addition of various f lour mill fractions. The optimized straight-dough bread making method (AACC method 10-10B) was used for conducting the baking trials. CIE L* a* b* val ues of the crumb were measured. Additional color attributes, (whiteness val ue, redness index (RI), saturation index (SI) and total color difference (D elta E), were calculated from these L* a* b* values. Compared with flour sa mples, the germ and bran fractions had significantly lower CIE L* a* b* and whiteness values, but higher redness and saturation indices, indicating da rker color and hue for the latter. Test bread samples having up to 30% bran and 10% germ, were lighter in crumb color than the control whole wheat flo ur bread. It was concluded that high-fiber toast bread, with lighter crumb color than whole wheat flour bread, can be produced by using white flour, a nd equal proportions of coarse and fine bran at 20%, germ at 5%, and sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate at 0.5% levels. The CIE L*a* b* tristimulus system ca n effectively be utilized for distinguishing crumb color variations in toas t bread samples.