Baking Contrast quantifies lightness of baked crust, crumb and similar applications. Monitoring lot differences in fresh bread and cookies is a typical application but BCU can be applied to monitor browning in any baked product.
BC or BCU – Baking Contrast Units is defined as:
BCU = log2 (Y/2.5)
where Y = CIE Tristimulus Y brightness value for D65/10 illuminant/observer conditions.
The BCU range will be from 0.00 (darkest) – 5.25 (lightest) BCU.
A difference of 0.1 BCU units is estimated to be a visual difference in the product.
Typical acceptable differences are larger than 0.1 and are user-defined for a given baked product.
Implementation of BCU in HunterLab Instruments
The portable MiniScan EZ 45/0 LAV and the mini-bench ColorFlex EZ 45/0 LAV are typically used for baking applications with firmware modification to add BCU as a color scale.
- CMR-3115 BCU-Baking Contrast Units for MiniScan EZ 45/0 LAV
- CMR-3116 BCU-Baking Contrast for ColorFlex EZ 45/0 LAV
Provides modified firmware to include the BCU-Baking Contrast Units scale D65/10 used in measuring baked crust, crumb and similar applications.
Mr. Philips has spent the last 30 years in product development and management, technical sales, marketing, and business development in several industries. Today, he is the global market development manager for HunterLab, focused on understanding customer needs, providing appropriate solutions and education, and helping to solve customer color challenges across these industries and cultures.