Controlo de qualidade na indústria de panificação e estudos de integração de novos formatos

Abstract

The term food quality is legally defined as the "set of properties and characteristics of a food or food product relating to raw materials or ingredients used in its preparation, nature, composition, purity, identification, origin and traceability, as well as the processes of elaboration, storage, packaging and marketing used in the presentation of the final product, especially in the labeled. Quality, however, is a subjective term, since it is directly related to individual consumer perception. However, the qualitative attributes of the product are based not only on consumer preferences but also on composition, production process, control of possible deterioration reactions, used packaging and life time. There are standard methodologies to analyze and evaluate the objective characteristics of food quality, guaranteeing a quality production, and helping to find and solve possible qualitative problems of the final product. To control the food quality of bakery products it is necessary to evaluate the factors responsible for the deterioration of the product and to look for ways to minimize its appearance. To that end, the physicochemical characteristics of the product are often analyzed as a means of controlling these phenomena. Additives that serve as coadjuvants in minimizing stalling and eliminating microbial growth. At Nutporbreads the quality control of the raw materials, manufacturing process and final product is carried out on a daily basis to ensure quality production. However, it was necessary to carry out the study presented, which consists of a long follow-up of the manufacturing process and the quality of the final product, in order to evaluate the impact of the variations of the manufacturing process on the physico-chemical characteristics. The study carried out in addition to intending to study the adaptation of new formats to production lines, has the objective of evaluating and understanding how variations in the process of variation are reflected in the physico-chemical quality of the product, and the results can to help in the profitability of the process and in the fight against the deterioration phenomena since they are directly related to the physical-chemical characteristics. The results obtained after the study demonstrate that some procedural conditions should be adjusted, for example a decrease in the bread stay time in the oven would guarantee a better quality of the product as well as a greater profitability, since the bread times in the oven are one slightly above the values presented as excellent in the bibliography. Among the physical-chemical characteristics, the only one that distances from the limit values established by the company is hardness, a characteristic related to the stalling of bread, so it is necessary to interview at the level of the formulation and at the procedural level in order to reduce this factor of deterioration. It is also advisable to carry out the procedural study for all bread formats in order to obtain conclusive results and adapted to all formats.

Date of Award	6 Dec 2018
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Helena Rangel (Supervisor) & Marta Vasconcelos (Co-Supervisor)