Effect of preservatives addition on the shelf‐life extensions and quality of flat bread as determined by near‐infrared spectroscopy and texture analysis

Summary Many people do not have refrigeration or frozen storage to inhibit mould growth and keep the Arabic bread fresh for more than a few days. Therefore, shelf‐life extension is necessary for this type of bread. The present study hypothesised that the addition of preservatives may be done in Arabic flat bread (AFB) to extend shelf‐life. Thus, objectives of this study were to evaluate selected preservatives to inhibit mould growth and to employ physical techniques, to monitor bread aging. Three preservatives, fumaric acid (0.2%, F), sodium propionate (0.3%, P), and sodium propionate‐fumaric acid mixture (PF) were used. Tensile tests, and near‐infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) were used to monitor bread ageing. The addition of PF in the AFB formula significantly increased the time of tearing at 0 day. For all treatments, the NIRS results showed high R2‐values between the actual storage days and NIRS predictions. The NIRS and texture analysis are valuable tools to detect the effect of the preservatives on AFB shelf‐life and quality.