Staling of chapatti (Indian unleavened flat bread)

Staling in foods is a process, which occurs when starch chains after gelatinization begin to reassociate in an ordered structure. Staling of chapatti results in loss in texture and eating quality of chapatti. Moisture content, water-soluble starch, in vitro enzyme digestibility, enthalpy change (ΔH), texture and sensory quality of chapattis, which are significantly affected during staling both at room and refrigerated temperature storage, were monitored over a storage period of one month. Moisture content, water-soluble starch and in vitro enzyme digestibility were found to decrease steadily during staling of chapattis at both room temperature and refrigerated temperature of storage. Enthalpy change, ΔH, as measured by DSC increased with storage time. The texture of chapattis became progressively harder with storage at both room and refrigerated temperature. A decrease in sensory quality and acceptability of the chapattis was observed with storage. The rate of staling was lower at refrigerated temperature. Most of the staling parameters studied showed good correlation. Texture showed the best overall correlation with all other staling parameters. In general, the correlation obtained at room temperature was better than that at refrigerated temperature.