SRC – CHOPIN

Measurement principle

The SRC (Solvent Retention Capacity) method is a measure of hydration based on the increased swelling capacity of the flour’s different polymers when brought into contact with certain solvents – distilled water, 5% lactic acid (to measure the glutenins), 5% sodium carbonate (to measure the damaged starch) and 50% sucrose (to measure the pentosans).

These solvents are used to predict the functional contribution of each of the polymers to the quality of the flour (KWEON et al., 2011).

A fully automated and simple procedure

The SRC-CHOPIN is a completely automatic system, controlled by a touch screen. It combines a dedicated external scale, shaker, centrifuge, and a system for draining the supernatant.

1. The tubes are weighed with a special scale that is equipped with a scanner, which saves time and avoids possible input errors.
2. Syringes containing the solvent and tubes containing the flour are inserted into the machine according to the automatically predefined test scheme indicated on the screen.
3. All the operator has to do then is start the test. The next steps (shaking, centrifuging, and draining) are performed automatically.
4. After the final weighing, the results are instantly calculated and displayed.
    

SRC – Benefits

• Use a single test to analyze the flour main functional components that directly influence the quality of the final product: damaged starch (dough stickiness), glutenins (extensibility and elasticity) and pentosans (dough viscosity and final product volume)
• Understand rheological analyses better, optimize the final products quality (cookies, crackers, breads, etc.)
• Benefit from a method that is acknowledged all around the world and standardized (AACC 56-11)
• Use a test that is common in the whole cereal industry, from breeding to baking

​​​SRC-CHOPIN – Advantages

Gain in productivity

• One machine allows for the analysis of up to 64 samples a day (example: 16 flours, 4 solvents – for an 8-hour day).
• The operator’s time is reduced (about 20 minutes to test 8 samples with the SRC-CHOPIN, compared to about 45 minutes for the manual method).

Improvement of precision

• Results are more accurate and reproducible.
• Results are comparable between laboratories. Operator error is no longer an issue.

Simplification of the process

• The different stages of the standard SRC test are automated.
• Calculations and results display are automated.