Protein fingerprinting of common wheat flours with different baking properties

Predicting the baking properties of wheat flours based on their protein composition is important for all stakeholders along the value chain. To assess the differences in protein composition of 77 commercial wheat flours and their relation to the specific bread volume, the albumins/globulins (ALGL), gliadins and glutenins were separated by reversed-phase ultra high-performance liquid chromatography. For the fingerprinting approach, the chromatograms were integrated at constant time intervals of 15 s to provide more detailed insights into specific protein patterns. The total extractable protein content ranged from 84.7 to 165.4 mg/g of flour, divided into 14.8–25.4% of ALGL, 46.8–60.2% of gliadins and 21.5–38.3% of glutenins. The content of gluten (r = 0.76), glutenins (r = 0.75) and high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (r = 0.70) each showed a positive correlation to the specific bread volume of the mini baking test. Hierarchical cluster analysis of the relative areas obtained by fingerprinting was suitable to identify specific samples which stood out due to their protein composition even though the samples were commercially relevant blends of several cultivars. These results demonstrate that the application of high-resolution fingerprinting combined with multivariate analysis offers a robust tool for characterizing the protein composition of complex wheat flour blends. • Seventy-seven international commercial wheat flour blends were analyzed • Fingerprinting was performed on Osborne fractions after RP-UHPLC-UV analysis • Protein content and glutenin types correlated to bread volume in mini baking tests • Fingerprinting and clustering effectively distinguish wheat flour blends