Influence of milling type on tef injera quality

Abstract

Injera is an Ethiopian flat bread that is mostly made from tef flour. Injera making on an industrial scale holds a significant economic and social interest but requires a thorough study of how the process variables affect the product quality. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of mill type (hammer, disc, and blade) on injera sensory quality and starch digestibility. The application of software for the determination of injera quality descriptors and its comparison with visual human eye evaluation was also established. Injera made with disc mill flour had higher overall acceptability (6.6) than that obtained from hammer mill (4.2) and blade mill (4.1) flours. The injera made with blade mill flour obtained the lowest rapidly available glucose and rapidly digestible starch. The outcome of introducing software for the determinations of injera number of eyes was found effective; its difference with human eye determination was insignificant.