Food Research International 40 (2007) 1087–1097

www.elsevier.com/locate/foodres

Granulometry of bread crumb grain: Contributions of 2D and 3D

image analysis at different scale
a,b,d
Nejla Lassoued , Perrine Babin a,c,e, Guy Della Valle a, Marie-Françoise Devaux a,*
,
Anne-Laure Réguerre a
a
INRA, UR1268 Biopolymères, Interactions et Assemblages, BP 71627, F-44316 Nantes, France
b
Laboratoire de Biophysique, UMR-INRA SCALE 1211, ENSIA, 1 av des Olympiades, 91744 Massy, France
c
Génie Physique et Mécanique des Matériaux, INPG, BP 46, 38402 Saint Martin d’Hères, France
d
Centre Technique de Conservation des Produits Agricoles, Rue Marcel Luquet, 32000 Auch, France
e
Science Computers Consultants, 8 Rue la Richelandière, Parc Giron 42100 St Etienne, France

Received 26 January 2007; accepted 5 June 2007

Abstract

Six bread crumbs were prepared from three different recipes and three baking procedures. Images of crumb were acquired in 2D at a
macroscopic scale by using a flat bed scanner (resolution 85 lm) and in 3D at a local scale by X-ray tomography (resolution 10 lm). The
cellular structure was assessed by mathematical morphology. 2D image analysis was completed by principal component analysis. The
first principal component was found to reflect crumb fineness, in agreement with the mean cell size determined in 3D at a local scale.
3D mean cell wall size were about 220 lm and were not significantly different. The second principal component was linked to the 2D
macroscopic heterogeneity of the crumb and to the macroscopic cell wall thickness. 2D images can be applied to the rapid control of
crumb grain and could be used to quantify the cellular structure for the calculation of mechanical properties.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Bread crumb; Image analysis; X-ray tomography; Mathematical morphology; Image texture; Cell size

1. Introduction Rouillé, Della Valle, Devaux, Marion, & Dubreil, 2005)

Mechanical properties of baked products strongly
depend on their cellular structure (Scanlon & Zghal,
2001). Crumb grain, defined by the size, the distribution
and the shape of cells and cell wall thickness (Kamman,
1970) largely governs sensory properties (Baardseth,
Kvaal, Lea, Ellekjær, & Færgestad, 2000) and influences
consumer purchase (Pyler, 1988). The characterisation of
crumb grain structure of baked products can be obtained
using imaging techniques. Among various devices, flatbed
scanner, CCD camera and magnetic resonance imaging
were used to generate 2D images (Naito, Ishida, Takano,
Koizumi, & Kano, 2003; Rogers, Day, & Olewnik, 1995;
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 2 40 6751 93; fax: +33 2 40 6750 84.
E-mail address: devaux@nantes.inra.fr (M.-F. Devaux).
and 3D visualisation was investigated using X-ray tomog-
raphy (Falcone et al., 2005). Objective assessment of visual
features is obtained using image processing and analysis.
Two approaches have been developed in 2D image anal-
ysis of baked products. The first one, based on cell segmen-
tation, aims at determining the cell size and shape
distributions. Cells are identified in the image using a thres-
holding operation. Sapirstein, Roller, and Bushuk (1994)
applied the k-means clustering algorithm to determine a
grey level threshold for each bread type studied. A satisfac-
tory characterisation of images based on crumb cells and
cell walls was obtained, but the procedure tended to
slightly underestimate the void fraction and overestimate
cell wall thickness. This deficiency was confirmed by Zghal,
Scanlon, and Sapirstein (1999), who showed that the inter-
connection of cells and the complexity of cellular structure

0963-9969/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2007.06.004
1088 N. Lassoued et al. / Food Research International 40 (2007) 1087–1097
of breads were probably responsible for the over-estima-
tion of cell characteristics by this method. Gonzales-Barron
and Butler (2006) compared the k-means clustering algo-
rithm to six other thresholding techniques and found sub-
stantial variations in crumb features such as cell
uniformity and void fraction according to threshold varia-
tions. Cell segmentation is probably not appropriate for
2D image analysis of the complex and non-uniform cellular
structure of baked products (Scanlon & Zghal, 2001).
The second approach is based on image texture analysis
directly applied on grey level images. Image texture can be
defined as the spatial distribution of grey levels and be
described as fine, smooth, coarse, grainy etc. Images dis-
playing small cells produce frequent grey level changes
and therefore a fine texture, while those with large cells
generate a coarser texture. Several techniques have been
applied to quantify image textures resulting from various
crumb grain structures. Images of French breads crumb
manufactured with different surfactants were classified
using six texture characteristics extracted by two-dimen-
sional Haar transform (Bertrand, Le Guernevé, Marion,
Devaux, & Robert, 1992). Zayas (1993) determined the
fineness of crumb from commercial breads by analysis of
a (64)2 pixel subimages of a whole slice. Rogers et al.
(1995) extracted features from the frequency domain, by
processing sub-images of bread slice to characterise crumb
fineness and crumb cell elongation. They compared their
results with expert crumb scores. Kvaal, Wold, Indahl,
Baardseth, and Næs (1998) compared different methods
of extracting features from images and tested their ability
to predict the porosity of wheat baguettes. Although all
these features were suitable to predict sensory properties,
results are somewhat difficult to interpret because their
physical meaning is not clear. Rouillé et al. (2005) evalu-
ated crumb grain of French breads manufactured with dif-
ferent flours, by a granulometric method using grey level
mathematical morphology. The morphological operators
used, i.e. erosion, dilation and their combination, opening
and closing, modify images according to the size and inten-
sity of bright and dark regions. The method made possible
to define a crumb fineness index, related to cell size. All
these studies show that image texture analysis has potential
for determining some cellular structural features, whilst
avoiding thresholding and cell segmentation.
The analysis of bread cellular structure from 2D images
is limited because cells are truncated due to bread section-
ing. Visualisation of bread structure in 3D can eliminate
this drawback and show the connection of cells. Recently,
magnetic resonance imaging with a spatial resolution of
100 · 100 lm2 and slice thickness from 0.25 to 0.4 mm
was applied to non-frozen and frozen dough and breads
with a measuring time of 20 min by Naito et al. (2003).
X-ray tomography can provide high quality 3D images of
cellular structure of food foam products, thanks to the
strong contrast between void and matter within the mate-
rial (Lim & Barigou, 2004; Trater, Alavi, & Rizvi, 2005).
Falcone et al. (2005) analysed two crumb samples
28 mm3 from the same bread, with a resolution of 14 lm.
Indicators of cell and wall sizes were determined and quan-
titative analysis of the crumb anisotropy was carried out.
Babin, Della Valle, Dendievel, Lassoued, and Salvo
(2005) have also investigated X-ray tomography, with a
resolution of 10 lm, to link mechanical properties of
breads and their crumb cellular structure by finite element
analysis. More recently, the potential of fast X-ray tomog-
raphy for the dynamic follow-up of dough during proofing
and baking was demonstrated by determining bubble
growth kinetics and evidence of coalescence phenomena
(Babin et al., 2006). All these studies focused on small sam-
ples in order to obtain a high spatial resolution.
The 2D and 3D imaging techniques were applied at
different scales, whole cut section being analysed in 2D
and crumb sub volumes in 3D. Both 2D and 3D images
allowed the assessment of useful crumb characteristics.
No studies were reported comparing results obtained for
the same samples. Therefore, the aim of this work was
to compare 2D results to those obtained by 3D X-ray
tomography. Methods were applied on breads made from
different dough compositions and mould baked in order
to modify crumb grain whilst limiting loaf volume
changes. Mathematical morphology was retained as 2D
image texture analysis to quantify cell and wall size vari-
ations. Multivariate data analysis was applied to interpret
the differences between samples. 3D granulometric analy-
sis of cell and walls was achieved by 3D mathematical
morphology.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Samples
The wheat flour was a standard commercial bread flour,
granted by Grands Moulins de Paris (92238 Gennevilliers,
France). Its protein content was 10.2% and initial moisture
content 15% (total wet basis). It was mixed with sucrose,
salt, yeast and water, in a Brabender Farinograph (Brab-
ender, USA) for 9 min. Four minutes before the end of
mixing, oil was added to the blend. At the end of mixing,
dough was placed in a cylindrical glass mould (Ø
140 mm, 70 mm high) to rest in a proofing room (Sepco,
France) at 25 C for 90 min, and was finally baked during
60 min at 180 C in the pilot electric oven (Bongard, 67810-
Holtzheim, France) described by Sommier, Chiron, Col-
onna, Della Valle, and Rouillé (2005). Proofing and baking
conditions were fixed for all compositions as indicated in
Table 1. Sample D1 was baked in an open mould. Samples
D2 and D3 had the same composition as D1 and were
baked in covered moulds. In addition, D3 dough has been
separated in 4 pieces, the pieces being reassembled side by
side into the mould. The objective was to generate different
crumb structures with a same composition. After baking,
products were cooled for 2 h in a room with controlled
temperature at 25 C. Loaf volume was measured by the
rapeseeds displacement method.
 N. Lassoued et al. / Food Research International 40 (2007) 1087–1097 1089

Table 1 ID19) as described by Babin et al. (2005). A tomographic

Bread composition and density (contents are given in % based on flour; scan is composed of several hundred radiographs, taken
yeast and salt contents were 3% and 2% respectively)
for different orientations of the sample placed on a rota-
Name Water Sucrose Oil Loaf density Solid material tion stage. 3D reconstruction is performed using an
(g m3) density (g m3)
appropriate algorithm. The very high intensity of the
A 60 2 2 0.21 1.18 X-ray beam and its monochromatic character allow quan-
B 65 10 10 0.33 1.21
C 55 15 2 0.40 1.26
titative analysis. About 1 cm3 of each bread crumb sample
D1 55 2 10 0.24 1.20 was placed on the rotating plate stage. Images were
D2 – – – 0.26 1.18 acquired to get a spatial resolution of 10 lm. Each scan
D3 – – – 0.26 1.18 was composed of 900 two-dimensional shadow X-ray
D2 and D3 were baked in closed moulds. 2D–3D crumb grain Lassoued images and took less than 10 min. Grey levels were coded
et al. using 256 grey levels. A 700 · 700 · 700 voxels volume of
interest was selected from the reconstructed 3D images to
2.2. 2D image acquisition be located at the centre of the specimen to eliminate any
edge effects, artefacts and damage from sample cutting
Two or three vertical and central slices (10 mm thick- (Fig. 1).
ness) were selected from each bread. Slices were positioned
at the centre of a flatbed scanner (CanonScan D125U2) 3. Image processing
and covered by a black box to obtain a good contrast
between the black background and the bright slices of 3.1. 2D image processing
bread. Colour images were captured using ScanGear CS-
U software acquisition. The resolution was 300 dpi, i.e. 1 Colour images were converted into monochromatic
pixel = (85)2 lm2, and was therefore improved compared images with grey levels ranging from 0 to 255. Grey level
to the (177)2 lm2 per pixel, reached by Rouillé et al. histograms of all scanned slices were examined altogether.
(2005) that used a CCD camera. An example of image is A grey level threshold of 100 was visually chosen to extract
given in Fig. 1. the slices from the background. The final region of interest
corresponding to crumb was obtained by erosion of the
2.3. 3D image acquisition mask of the slice using a squared structuring element of size
21 · 21 pixels (Soille, 2003). Bread crumbs have been char-
The characterisation of the cellular structure by X-ray acterised within the region of interest by grey level granul-
tomography was performed at ESRF (European Radia- ometry based on mathematical morphology as described in
tion Synchrotron Facility, F-38 Grenoble, beamline detail by Rouillé et al. (2005). The method is recalled in the
following.
Erosion–dilation curves: Mathematical morphology is a
set of transformations based on probing images with masks
of given size and shape called ‘‘structuring elements’’ (Serra,
1982). The basic transformations are erosion and dilation
with squared structuring elements. The size n of erosion
or dilation defines the side size of the square as 2n + 1.
An example of erosion and dilation of size 5 is shown in
Fig. 2. After erosion, cell walls thinner than the structuring
element are removed and the sum of grey levels decreases.
Dilation makes cells smaller than the structuring element
disappear and the sum of grey level increase (Fig. 2).
Applying erosion and dilation of size 15 makes most walls
and cells, respectively disappear. A grey level granulometry
can be achieved by applying successively erosion or dila-
tion of increasing size and by measuring at each step the
sum of grey levels. This sum continuously decreases from
the last dilation step to the original image and from the ori-
ginal image to the last erosion step. This decrease will
depend on the amount of walls and cells modified at each
step. A granulometric curve is obtained by normalizing
the sum of grey level, separately for dilations and erosions,
Fig. 1. 2D and 3D images of bread crumb sample D1 obtained using a according to:
flatbed scanner (14.8 · 8.7 cm2) and X-ray tomography (6.7 · 6.7 ·
6.9 mm3) (ESRF-Grenoble). GðiÞ ¼ j½V ðiÞ  V f   100=½V 0  V f j
1090 N. Lassoued et al. / Food Research International 40 (2007) 1087–1097

Fig. 2. Illustration of erosion and dilation treatments applied to crumb from bread dough D1 image shown in Fig. 1. First line: erosion and dilation of size
5, second line: erosion and dilation of step 15.

where i is the dilation or erosion step, V0 and Vf are the

sum of grey level for the original image and after the last
dilation or erosion step, respectively. The final curve,
called ‘erosion–dilation’ curve, is obtained by assessing
the derivative of G for erosions and dilations and by join-
ing the two resulting curves from f to 1 for dilation and
from 1 to f for erosion, f being the largest transformation
applied (Fig. 3). Erosion–dilation curves therefore mea-
sure the proportions of grey level that are modified be-
tween two successive erosion or dilation steps. In the
present work, 30 erosion steps and 30 dilation steps were
applied.
Erosion–dilation curves were analysed by principal com-
ponent analysis. A data table was built in which each row
represents an image and each column one of the erosion or
dilation steps. The values in the data table are the grey level
variations observed at each step. Principal component
analysis assessed synthetic uncorrelated components that Fig. 3. Examples of granulometric curves for crumb A (coarse) and crumb
revealed similarities between images by taking all erosion C (thin). The right part of the curve corresponds to erosion steps from the
smallest to the largest one and therefore characterises grey level variations
and dilation steps into account. Similarity maps of images due to bright cell walls. The left part of the curve corresponds to dilation
can be drawn from principal component scores. Principal steps from the largest to the smallest step, characterising grey level
components are interpreted by looking at loadings that variations due to cells. Step units are given in mm, one step corresponding
reveal the weight of each erosion or dilation step in their to a variation of 2 · 85 = 170 lm.
computation.
Fineness index: In the preceding study (Rouillé et al., of size lower than 1 mm2, but describes the variation of
2005), we defined a fineness index for the crumb cells from grey level caused by the occurrence of these small cells.
morphological ‘‘closing’’. Closing consists in applying a The more small cells are observed, the higher will be this
dilation immediately followed by an erosion of the same index.
size and can be compared to a sieving of dark objects in Image processing program was written using procedures
the image, i.e., crumb cells in our case. Fineness was of the Aphelion software (ADCIS, France). Calculation of
defined as the percentage of grey level variations measured the granulometric curves and principal components analy-
after a closing corresponding to a square of size 1 mm2. sis were performed with Matlab 6.0 software (the Math
This index is not a measurement of the actual area of cells Works, France).
 N. Lassoued et al. / Food Research International 40 (2007) 1087–1097
3.2. 3D image processing
Due to the good contrast of the images (Fig. 1), cell seg-
mentation could be performed using a single threshold
automatically determined by the ImageJ software. It was
checked that a variation of ±10 in the threshold selected
generated only 1% deviation in the 3D characteristics
measured.
The fraction of voxels segmented as cell walls and con-
sidered as a wall volumic fraction is usually called ‘‘relative
density’’. It is comparable to the ratio (q*/qs), q* being the
density of the crumb and qs the density of the material of
the cell walls.
Volumic distributions of cell size were determined by 3D
morphological granulometry, performed by iterations of
closing using octahedral structuring elements of increasing
size. Closing can be compared to a 3D sieving of black
objects in the images, black objects being removed from
the image according to their size. Volumic distributions
by closing are similar to usual granulometric distributions.
Volumic distributions of cell wall size were obtained by
‘‘openings’’ (i.e. successive application of erosion and dila-
tion of the same size) of increasing size. Similarly to clos-
ing, opening can be compared to a sieving of white
Fig. 4. Examples of scanned images of bread crumb samples. From top to bottom and left to right: breads A, B, C, D1, D2 and D3. All images are
represented at the same scale and size of image A was 15.0 · 8.9 cm.
1091
objects, the walls in our case. This procedure actually esti-
mates variations of cell wall thickness. The volumic means
of cell size and cell wall thickness were computed from
these distributions.
Image analysis procedures were developed at the GPM2
laboratory using ImageJ (Rasband, W.S., US National
Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, http://
rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/, 1997–2006) and Aphelion (ADCIS,
France) software.
4. Results and discussion
A range of bread crumbs was obtained with densities
varying from 0.21 to 0.40 g cm3 (Table 1). Breads A and
D had close values whereas larger densities were obtained
for recipes B and C, which had larger sucrose contents
(10 and 15% flour content). This result may be explained
by the depressing role played by a large concentration of
sugar on yeast, due to osmotic constraints. Examples of
images obtained in 2D and 3D are given in Figs. 4 and 5.
Images in Fig. 4 show that cells and walls were nicely vis-
ualised by using a flat scanner with a better resolution than
the one obtained in a previous study using a CCD camera
(Rouillé et al., 2005). Images in Fig. 5 show sections
1092 N. Lassoued et al. / Food Research International 40 (2007) 1087–1097

Fig. 5. Sections (7 · 7 mm2) of the 3D images obtained by X-ray tomography (ESRF-Grenoble) of the six bread crumb samples. From top to bottom and
left to right: breads A, B, C, D1, D2 and D3.

extracted from the 3D images obtained by X-ray tomogra-
phy; they all displayed a good contrast between cells and
cell walls allowing cell segmentation.
Different cellular structures were obtained. Samples A
and D1 had crumbs with larger cells than the other samples
(Fig. 4). Some cells appeared opened and connected with
their neighbours. B and C had a finer cell structure with
smooth cell walls. D2 and D3 samples had also a fine cell
structure. 3D X-ray tomography images corresponded to
a smaller field of view than 2D images. 7 · 7 mm2 examples
of sections are shown in Fig. 5. 3D resolution allows visu-
alising cells as small as 30 lm. Connections between cells
were observed and, like 2D flat scanner images, larger cells
were observed for samples A and D1.
ple A for dilation steps over 1 mm, reflecting a higher
content of large cells in its crumb.
Eighteen images have been acquired in total for the
tested products and their erosion–dilation curves were pro-
cessed by principal components analysis. Though the num-
ber of images was not very important, the method provides
a synthetic comparison of the images by taking into
account all erosion and dilation steps. The first two princi-
pal components took into account 82.3 and 11.8% of the
total variance. The corresponding similarity map (Fig. 6)

4.1. 2D image analysis

Examples of erosion–dilation curves are represented in

Fig. 2 for samples A and C. The left side of the curve, cor-
responding to dilations, and the right side, corresponding
to erosions, give information about cell size and cell wall
thickness, respectively. Sizes were analysed between 0.255
and 5.185 mm for both cell and wall thickness. A higher
peak was obtained for sample C indicating that more grey
level variations were measured for the first three erosion
and dilation steps. These steps corresponded to sizes smal-
ler than 600 lm. This result evidences the finer texture of Fig. 6. Similarity map from principal component analysis of the erosion–
sample C, suggesting a large content of small cells. Con- dilation curves. Components 1 and 2 accounted for 82.6 and 11.8% of
versely, more grey level variations were observed for sam- total variance.
 N. Lassoued et al. / Food Research International 40 (2007) 1087–1097 1093

shows that samples coming from the same kind of bread Table 2
were mainly clustered. Samples B and C were found on Crumb grain features of breads obtained by image analysis
the positive side of principal component 1 while samples Name 2D image analysis 3D image analysis
A, D1 and D2 were found on the negative side, D3 spread- Average Fineness Relative Estimated Mean Mean wall
ing on both sides. Observing crumb grain images and their PC1 (<1 mm) density density value cell size thickness
localisation on the similarity map showed that the first (g cm3) (mm) (mm)
principal component classified crumbs from finer to coarser A 2.30 33 0.19 0.22 1.47 0.24
texture, from right to left. This is confirmed by looking at B 1.11 39 0.25 0.30 1.12 0.25
C 2.27 42 0.31 0.39 0.84 0.21
the corresponding loading (Fig. 7). Positive values were D1 1.53 35 0.17 0.20 1.50 0.19
found for the first erosion and dilation steps and negative D2 0.88 37 0.23 0.27 1.15 0.22
values for the largest erosion steps. This reveals that sam- D3 1.11 40 0.21 0.25 1.14 0.20
ples on the positive side of component 1 had more grey 2D–3D crumb grain Lassoued et al.
level variations associated to small size of erosion and dila-
tion, i.e. a finer crumb texture. Indeed, in the case of parti- thinner walls and larger cells were observed for sample
cle size analysis, principal component 1 has already been A. Moreover, samples B and C displayed cells of much dif-
correlated to the average cell size (Devaux, Robert, Mel- ferent sizes (Fig. 4). All these results contribute to suggest
cion, & Le Deschault de Monredon, 1997). that principal component 2 is an indicator of wall thickness
A crumb grain fineness was defined in the preceding and crumb homogeneity.
study (Rouillé et al., 2005) as the grey level fraction of cells Some scatterings of the samples coming from the same
with a size < 1 mm. In the present work, average fineness bread loaf were observed on the similarity map, for compo-
values were found to vary between 33 and 42% (Table 2). nents 1 and 2 (Fig. 6). These variations are linked to the
Fineness and component 1 gave the same classification of differences of texture between different slices in the bread
the samples (Table 2) with a correlation coefficient loaf: the spreading of sample A according to component
r2 = 0.96 pointing that erosion–dilation granulometric 1 would reflect variations along the direction orthogonal
curves contained the same information than this closing to the slicing plane. It does not reflect an artefact, but
index. In addition, erosion–dilation curves also take into rather an intrinsic feature of the bread itself, namely axial
account cell walls. Looking at component 1 provides a heterogeneity. Sample C had a constant score for compo-
sample classification based on the fineness of cells without nent 1, but presented significant variations of crumb heter-
defining any arbitrary limit value for fineness like the 1 mm ogeneity. Sample D3 displayed variations for both
chosen formerly. components 1 and 2. Mean sizes and size distributions both
Principal component 2 (11.8% of total variance) varied according to the slice observed, within the same
revealed differences between samples A and the other sam- bread. Internal variability has been described as typical
ples, mainly B, C and D2. The right part of the second of French breadmaking (Baardseth et al., 2000). Accord-
loading (Fig. 7b), suggest that crumbs with positive 2nd ingly, this variability was also observed for the breads ana-
component scores contained more thin cell walls. The left lysed in the present work.
part (dilation) of the second loading revealed positive val-
ues for intermediate sizes (0.5–1.5 mm) and negative values
for both large (size >1.5 mm) and small size (size 4.2. 3D image analysis
<0.5 mm). This could be related to the homogeneity of cell
size distribution. Indeed, in samples B, C and D3, small Sections of 3D images of crumbs issued from X-ray
cells were observed together with larger cell walls whereas tomography are presented in Fig. 5. These images show

Fig. 7. First and second loadings corresponding to principal components 1 and 2 of the similarity map of the erosion–dilation curves.
1094 N. Lassoued et al. / Food Research International 40 (2007) 1087–1097
that the resolution allows analysing cell size, cell shape and
also wall thickness. For instance, the smaller cells appeared
more spherical than the larger ones (Fig. 5). These 2D
images also suggest that most of the cells were separated
from each other. In fact, connection between cells was
investigated by 3D image analysis. The 3D connectivity
index computed by the ratio of the largest cell volume to
the total void volume, according to Babin et al. (2006),
was close to 100%. This result proved that cells were highly
connected to each other, i.e. bread crumbs had an open cel-
lular structure. This result is not surprising when consider-
ing the large relative density values, which varied between
0.19 (A) and 0.31 (C) (Table 2). Crumb porosity, i.e. cell
volumic fraction, therefore varied between 0.81 and 0.69.
The connection of cells thus addresses a sterical constraint
since maximum random packing fraction is 0.68, for spher-
ical shaped elements of the same size and arranged without
order.
Relative density values computed from 3D images were
compared to the loaf density measured by the rapeseed
method. Loaf density values were estimated from images
by multiplying the relative density value by the solid mate-
rial density. This density (Table 1) was estimated by the
additive rule:
X did not vary significantly from one bread to another. In
1=qs ¼ ci =qsi
where ci and qsi were respectively the concentration and the
density of each component – flour, water, sucrose and oil –
included in the bread, water content being measured after
baking. A good agreement (r2 = 0.91) was found between
the two sets of density values (Tables 1 and 2). This result
suggests that, at least from the density point of view, the
measurements made by X-ray tomography at local scale
(sample  1 cm3), were representative of the whole crumb.
Fig. 8. 3D granulometric distribution of the cell size of bread crumb samples.
Cell size volumic distributions were computed by mor-
phological granulometry using closing operator for each
bread (Fig. 8). In the present case, the cells were highly con-
nected, so the size analysed by closing actually corre-
sponded to their smallest dimension, i.e. their breadth in
3D. Smallest cell sizes (<2 mm) were observed for crumb
C and B and largest ones (1–3.5 mm) for samples A and
D1, which reached the largest size values. In addition, size
distribution was narrower for sample C and B than for
sample A and D1. Samples D2 and D3 displayed interme-
diate features. The mean cell size was computed from the
distributions (Table 2). Values varied between 1.5 mm for
samples D1 and A and 0.84 mm for sample C.
Volumic distributions of wall thickness have been calcu-
lated by morphological granulometry by opening. This
method analyses the smallest dimension of the wall corre-
sponding to the thickness. The curves (Fig. 9) were some-
what similar, with a large peak around 200 lm, spreading
to 500 lm. Mean values of cell wall thickness were reported
in Table 2 and ranged between 0.19 for sample D1 and
0.25 lm for sample B. Relative density was inversely corre-
lated (r2 = 0.86) to mean cell size (Table 2) and was not
correlated to wall size. The presence of large cells led to a
low relative density value of the 3D images. Wall sizes
other words, and contrarily to the results obtained when
adding ingredients with tensioactive properties (Rouillé
et al., 2005), no fine cellular structure could be obtained
for crumbs of low density, under our experimental
conditions.
Overall, the orders of magnitude were within the same
range as those found by Falcone et al. (2005) for cell wall
sizes but somewhat larger for cell sizes than those found
by Scanlon and Zghal (2001), both for pan bread. In the
 N. Lassoued et al. / Food Research International 40 (2007) 1087–1097
Fig. 9. 3D granulometric distribution of the wall thickness of bread crumb samples.
last case, the difference is in agreement with French bread
crumb, expected to be coarser.
4.3. Comparison between 2D and 3D analyses
Imaging in 2D corresponded to a macroscopic scale
allowing to observe whole bread slices while tomography
images described a 1 cm3 part of the sample with a higher
resolution (Fig. 1). 2D images were several cm large and
the resolution was 85 lm · 85 lm per pixel while 3D images
were 700 · 700 · 700 lm3 large with 10 lm for voxel size.
For both scales, granulometric analyses were performed
by mathematical morphology to characterise cell and wall
size variations. In 2D, erosion–dilation curves were
obtained for sizes ranging from 0.255 to 5.185 mm within
a frame of grey level texture analysis and without any seg-
mentation steps. The principal components extracted from
these curves were interpreted as describing variations in cell
size for component 1 and cell heterogeneity and wall size for
component 2. In 3D, opening and closing were applied on
binary images leading to granulometric curves directly
interpretable as volumic distribution ranging from 0.040
to 4.320 mm for cells and from 0.040 to 0.840 mm for walls.
Mean size values were extracted from these curves.
The average scores of each type of bread obtained for
component 1, after 2D image analysis, were well correlated
to the 3D mean cell size (r2 = 0.86). For both sets of
images, samples A and D1 had larger cells and samples C
and B smaller cells than the others. However, differences
for component 1, between samples D2 on one hand, and
B and D3 on the other hand are large with respect to the
values of mean cell size found by 3D analysis. Such lack
of fit between the results obtained by the two techniques
can be due to several causes. A large variability was
observed on the similarity map assessed from 2D images
1095
that was interpreted as heterogeneity in the axial direction,
caused by variability of crumb texture according to the
slice observed. This makes the average score for one type
of bread crumb somewhat imprecise. Another reason
may be explained by the different scales of observation of
the two techniques as illustrated in Fig. 1. Smaller cells
are finally taken into account in tomography that could
not be detected by the macroscopic 2D imaging technique
while larger cells were taken into account in the 2D scan-
ning method.
The standard deviation of 3D granulometric curves was
not correlated with the second principal component
obtained from 2D images, although this component
described partly cell size heterogeneity. This result is not
surprising since heterogeneity at the macroscopic scale is
hardly comparable to the one defined at the local scale.
In addition, component 2 described also some variations
in macroscopic wall thickness in the 2D images. In the
3D images, mean wall thickness values varied between
0.19 and 0.25 mm and were not found highly different from
one image to the other. Such size values can hardly be char-
acterised using the current 2D images for which the resolu-
tion was 85 lm. The large variability between slices of same
bread does not allow further interpretation.
In 3D, only a small (700 · 700 · 700 lm3) and localised
part of the bread was analysed. The strong correlation
between loaf density estimated by the rapeseed method
and the one estimated from 3D images could suggest that
the crumb densities were uniform. However, heterogeneities
were observed within the slices in 2D (Fig. 4). For example,
in sample C, large cells are scarcely observed here and there,
and smaller cells can be observed near the crust. In fact,
macroscopic variations of the density measured at the local
scale might be expected according to different processing
conditions, for instance the heating mode during baking
1096 N. Lassoued et al. / Food Research International 40 (2007) 1087–1097
(Sommier et al., 2005; Wagner et al., 2006). To address this
issue, the relation between local and macroscopic density
should be checked, for instance through an X-ray tomogra-
phy of the cellular structure of samples taken at different
locations, core and periphery of the same slice.
Measures in 3D were obtained after segmentation of
cells making the granulometric measures directly interpret-
able compared to the textural approach developed for the
2D images obtained simply using a flat bed scanner. The
agreement between 3D and 2D analyses suggests that one
may predict the average cell size of the bread crumb from
the knowledge of the first component in the similarity
map of 2D granulometric curves. Building similarity maps
of bread from the grey level analyses of their images
requires building a set of reference bread spanning the
whole range of crumb variations that have to be taken into
account. Such information might in turn be used to calcu-
late the mechanical properties of the crumb starting from
power law models (Zghal, Scanlon, & Sapirstein, 2002) or
finite element modelling approach (Babin et al., 2005).
5. Conclusion
Starting from breads prepared according to different
recipes, this study has shown that a 2D and 3D granulo-
metric analysis by mathematical morphology is suitable
to characterise crumb grain. The 2D method associated
to a statistical treatment led to a similarity map with a clas-
sification of crumb grain according first, to the fineness
and, second, to the homogeneity of the macroscopic cell
size distribution, taking into account an apparent cell wall
thickness. 3D quantitative features of the cellular structure
of baked products have been determined from a sample
taken in the bread core. The comparison of the results
obtained by the two methods shows that the macroscopic
fineness was well correlated to the mean cell size measured
at the local scale. This relation between a technique based
on 2D scanned images, quite fast, non-expensive and easy
to use, with a robust technique based on 3D high quality
images obtained by X-ray tomography opens prospects
for its use in industry quality control. In particular it can
be envisioned to build reference map of bread crumb vari-
ability from 2D images by including a larger set of bread
recipes and by taking into account several breads per recipe
and several slices per bread. A more accurate assessment of
the macroscopic heterogeneity has to be addressed in the
future works to better understand the texture and sensory
properties of baked products.
Acknowledgements
This work has been carried out in the frame of CA-
NAL-Salve program from the French Ministery of Re-
search within which partners contribution is gratefully
acknowledged. The authors are indebted to H. Chiron
(BIA) and to the staff of ESRF-beam line ID19 for their
excellent technical assistance. They are also grateful to
Science Computers Consultant (F42-St Etienne) and
CTCPA (F33-Auch) for financial support of this study,
and respectively, Ch. David and I. Goullieux for helpful
discussions.
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