GUEST COLUMN


perceived demand for more ‘natural’ products. Consequently, manufacturers, suppliers and retailers are looking to replace ‘additives’ and E numbers with ingredients that are perceived to be less processed and more ‘natural’. With a wide diversity of products, the baking industry uses additives to ensure that baked goods from French sticks to wholemeal loaves satisfy consumers’ increasingly discerning demands for fresh, high quality, consistently tasty baked goods with a good shelf life. With the drive for clean label products, many bakers are


THE CLEAN LABEL CHALLENGE T


here has been a surge of interest in clean labels in recent years with the


CHARLES SPIERS Baking Service Manager, Campden BRI


The global food and beverage processing industry relies on an


annual supply of some 300,000 tonnes of emulsifier to produce the wide range of multi-component products that consumers today enjoy. These include everyday purchases but the biggest application overall is within the bakery sector. Emulsifiers provide superior palatability, mouth feel, texture and


contemplating the technical challenges it poses – replacing established ingredients and additives with clean label versions that yield products of equal quality and as long a shelf-life. While this is a relatively straightforward process with some


bakery ingredients, it is not as easy with key functional ingredients such as emulsifiers. There can be some misunderstanding about the function emulsifiers perform within the baking process and how feasible it is to replace them with similarly performing ‘clean label’ alternatives. It is therefore essential bakers understand the important role of emulsifiers and the challenges and pitfalls associated with sourcing alternative ingredients.


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a consistent, high quality appearance. Within the baking industry, they are used particularly to deliver process stability during baking resulting in oven spring, providing volume and a good bread crumb structure. In general, they stabilise the oil phase in dough, with one part of the emulsifier molecule attaching to the fat in the dough and the other to the water. By sitting at the fat- water interface, they hold the two phases together. This provides much-needed stability to the bubbles that form in the dough, helping to deliver the characteristic open, light texture of leavened bread. Most emulsifiers are mono and diglycerides and their


derivatives, which constitute about 70 per cent of total production. This group alone is responsible for 26 different food product label declarations or E numbers in Europe. Many mono- and di-glycerides are natural biological materials, extracted from materials such as soya. But with names such as:


European Baker Magazine - Digital Digest • www.worldbakers.com 9­


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