Morphological characterization of wheat powders, how to characterize the shape of particles?

A quantitative method was developed to evaluate the shape of wheat powder particles. The method relies on a dispersion system designed to scatter particles on a transparent glass slide. A digital image acquisition system based on specialized software was then used to analyze the acquired images. Particles (1000) were analyzed with respect to four shape factors (circularity, elongation, convexity, and compactness). Dispersion of experimental values characterizes the large heterogeneity in wheat flour particles' shapes. The results demonstrate that small particles of wheat powders have more regular shape than big ones, due to possible erosion mechanisms occurred during milling. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.