Freshly packed bread showed an average crumb moisture of
44.7%. This value decreased significantly with
ageing, until steady values around 33–35% An
increase in the crust moisture was observed (data not shown),
thus indicating that moisture loss from crumb is to be
attributed to its migration to the crust. The moisture loss
from crumb determines its hardening, due to its plasticizing
effect on the crumb network conversely, the moisture increase in the crust causes its
softening. This event is, together with starch recrystallization,
one of the major factors involved in bread staling studied the effect of durum wheat
cultivar on the staling rate of bread as determined by crumb
water loss and firming. For what concerns the comparison
among packaging materials, no significant difference was
observed: this confirms the similar performances of the
materials tested, irrespective of their thickness, especially
regarding the moisture barrier which is essential for the
quality maintenance of bakery products. As it can be inferred,
different packages were able to guarantee the same steady-
state crumb moisture, but none of the tested materials could
slow down the moisture loss from crumb, this event
depending only on the food matrix properties.