AACCI standard granted

At the 100th American Association of Cereal Chemists Conference in Minneapolis, Stable Micro Systems, was granted approval of an AACCI standard method for its Volscan Profiler. A laser based, non-contact instrument, the Volscan Profiler automatically measures the volume and dimensional profile of baked products, accurately and repeatably. The newly developed standard will permit cereal scientists and bakers to test their products using a method approved by the AACC.

Replacing manual, time consuming and inaccurate measurement methods such as water or seed displacement techniques, the benchtop laser based scanner provides objective and precise three-dimensional digitisation (laser topography) for a wide variety of bread and baked products. These include various styles of bread, from tin loaves to round loaves, rolls (seeded and non-seeded) and baguettes, to muffins and cakes, with a maximum sample height of 60cm and width of 38cm.

Jo Smewing, applications manager, Stable Micro Systems, comments: “The method underwent a collaborative study with nine laboratories in the US, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, with each following the procedure for a range of 11 samples and reporting back on the results. Including measurements such as volume, product length, maximum height and maximum width, the standard method offers operators a comprehensive measurement scope, with a greater range of parameters and breadth of bakery samples than any similar method using competitive instrumentation.”

The technology can also be used to determine further product dimensions including specific volume, volume yield, height at the maximum width, width at the maximum height and aspect ratios, although these additional parameters were not investigated in the study.