Assessment by MRI of local porosity in dough during proving. Theoretical considerations and experimental validation using a spin-echo sequence

Proving is a key stage in the development of the final structure of bread, as invasive measurements may provoke dough collapse. Therefore, better understanding and better control of the nucleation and the growth of bubbles require the development of non-invasive methods of measurement. In the present work, a non-invasive method is presented for the measurement of local dough porosity from MR image analysis. For this, a direct relation between the gray level of a voxel and its gas fraction was established in the absence of heat and mass transfer. At whole dough scale for a one-dimensional expansion, the porosity estimated from the gray level was compared with the porosity estimated from total dough volume measurements in a range of [0.10, 0.74 m(3) of gas/m(3) of dough]. For short proving times (<30 min), MR image analysis underestimated porosity by a maximum of 0.03 m(3) of gas/m(3) of dough, but otherwise the difference between the two means of measurement was within the standard error of total dough measurements (+/-0.01 m(3) of gas/m(3) of dough). Maps of local porosity in dough during proving are also presented and discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.