One of the important concerning problems in baking industries is staling of bread for the retardation or reduction of which a number of investigators have tried to study the phenomenon intensively. Different approaches have been adopted to explain staling mechanism (s) and subsequently to retard it. In this study wheat gluten and barley malt were employed as antistaling agents in Barbari flat bread. Gluten was added at 1,3 and 5 percent levels and barley malt at 0.5,1,1.5 and 2 percent. The effects of these treatments on chemical, physical (rheological) and palatability effecting characteristics of bread were investigated through obejctive as well as subjective analyses. Sensory analysis results, using multiple comparison and scoring tests, proved that appearance,crust color, crumb quality and crumb color were not substantially changed. From staling point of view the samples, after a lapse of 24 hours from baking, were of the same properties as control. However, there were significant differences observed among samples after passing of 48 hours from storage time. Bread samples containing 5 percent gluten were significantly different in freshness (fresher) from others according to statistical analysis. After a lapes of 72 hours, all the samples containing different amounts of gluten were evaluated and found to be fresher than control. Regarding the addition of barley malt, the resuts of sensory analysis demonstrated that the assessed properties of barley treated samples i.e, appearance, crust color, crumb texture and flavour were similar to those in control. However, crumb color was found to be different. Samples containing 1.5 and 2 percent malt were evaluated as different from control in this respect. Regarding staling, the results indicated that there were no significant differences among samples after a duration of 24 hours of storage. However, after 48 hours of storage two samples containing 1 and 2 percent malt were evaluated as different. After expiration of 72 hours from baking, there were not any significant differences observed between control and the different samples.
)