Staling Behavior of Chickpea‐Enriched Bread: A Dynamic Mechanical Analysis Approach

Bread is a staple food widely consumed worldwide and therefore represents an excellent vehicle for increasing nutrient intake. In this context, the incorporation of chickpea flour into bread offers promising nutritional benefits; however, its impact on bread technological quality remains underexplored. This study investigated staling phenomena in composite breads produced by substituting wheat flour with chickpea flour at 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%. Moisture content, texture, and viscoelastic properties were monitored over 7 days of storage. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), including frequency sweep and temperature scan tests, was employed as a less commonly used tool to evaluate mechanical changes associated with staling and formulation. Multivariate analyses were used to assess the effects of chickpea flour and storage time on bread properties. Hardness was found to be correlated with viscoelastic parameters obtained by the DMA frequency sweep test. The DMA temperature scan was able to measure the mechanical changes associated with frozen water transition, showing a significant decrease in ice melting temperature related to chickpea flour inclusion (~3°C) and storage time (~2.5°C). Among the different parameters used to describe thermal transitions (storage and loss moduli drops and tanδ peak), it was identified which of these was most effective in discriminating the samples as an effect of both chickpea flour and storage time. Overall, these results support the potential of DMA as a complementary analytical approach for assessing staling and mechanical changes evolution in chickpea-enriched bread, providing new insights into formulation-induced structural changes during storage.