Assessment of the Fermentative Performance of Traditional Fresh Moroccan Sourdoughs and Their Freeze-Dried Forms Using Online Monitoring Device: Panigraph

The fermentative activity of sourdoughs and their stabilities are some of the main concerns of professionals in food science. The aim of this study was to evaluate the fermenting capacity of three traditional fresh sourdoughs and their freeze-dried forms with different compositions prepared by housewives in three different regions of Morocco. A device equipped with several sensors was developed to monitor several parameters simultaneously and in real time (the pH, dough rise, loss of mass, CO2 and ethanol release). The results showed that the duration of dough fermentation was long, ranging from 594 to 1210 min, with the specific volume ranging from 0.9 to 3.35 cm3/g-1. A strong and positive correlation between dough rise and CO2 release was observed, while ethanol release did not contribute directly to dough rise. The fresh sourdough FS1 showed better fermentative performance than the others, while the freeze-dried sourdough FDS3 was also of interest for bread making. The system used to generate the graphical fingerprints enabled us to read the main fermentation parameters directly in the same graph, as well as to compare several sourdoughs at once and choose the one best suited to our needs.