Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 22 ISSUE 4
Written by Anca TULBURE

In view of obtaining high-grade and competitive products, food industry manufacturers, as well as others, place the client, the consumer, at the top of the quality pyramid. The application of the Customer Orientation principle is essential. For the product “gingerbread”, the subject of this work, textural analysis is used as a survey method, to improve the quality of the product. Gingerbread manufacturers, aiming to satisfy the clients’ requirements, study the behaviour of the products developed by using various ingredients, in different proportions, with various maturation times and with water activities originating from different moisture levels of the product. Such values are intended to particularize the product and to assign it better quality and preservability during the validity term. Thus, in this survey, wheat flour was replaced with rye flour in different percentages, and the dough obtained was left to mature for 30, and respectively 150 minutes. The textural properties of the finished product were analysed, having an impact on the consumer, namely hardness, strength, and resilience. These parameters subject to analysis can be considered quality indicators for gingerbread. It was determined that the replacement of wheat flour with rye flour to a certain percentage leads to minimum toughness of the product. Corelations were made with maturation times, as well as with the moisture of the product. Maturation processes are complex, and the effects of the various factors considered are contradictory.

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