New enzyme innovations are enhancing bread quality, extending shelf life, and delivering tailored solutions for bakers seeking to meet growing consumer demands for freshness and taste.


N


ew enzyme preparations and functional flours are enhancing the baking industry offering


by


extending bread shelf life and enhancing product quality. These innovations


provide added value through tailor-made solutions designed to meet specific freshness attributes, helping bakers deliver fresher, longer- lasting products. Flour treatment specialist MC Mühlenchemie has boosted its Alphamalt Fresh product line with two new versions that significantly extend the freshness of industrially produced bread. The new Alphamalt Fresh & Soft and Fresh & Spring products offer different approaches to meeting the individual desires of bakeries and consumers for freshness attributes like crumb moisture, softness, and elasticity. Depending on requirements, mills can offer bakeries added value in the form of flour with functional properties that help products stay fresh longer. This reduces food waste and makes production more economical and sustainable.


Rising quality expectations of retailers and consumers


Consumers want fresh foods; manufacturers and retailers must meet this demand with long shelf life and consistent quality. In baked goods, this quality is defined by characteristics like appearance, flavour, aroma, crispiness and crust. The elasticity and softness of the crumb are further key quality criteria. Baked good structure changes over time, becoming progressively harder during transportation and storage. The main reason for this is the retrogradation or partial recrystallisation of the amylopectin component of the starch gelatinised during baking.


Enzymes as the key to freshness preservation The products in the Alphamalt Fresh range prevent recrystallisation of the starch gelatinised during baking, keeping the crumb softer for longer. While the smaller amylose molecules move from the starch grains into their surroundings and recrystallise after baking, the larger amylopectin molecules remain in their non-crystalline form at first. Favoured by low temperatures, the amylopectin crystallises as the helical components of the


bakeryproduction.co.uk


molecule “coil” back up. The hardening of the crumb results from the firm binding of water by the crystallising amylopectin.


The Alphamalt Fresh series enzyme preparations reduce the amount of amylopectin that can crystallise.The resulting short-chain dextrins also interact with the remaining helical structures of the starch to prevent them from crystallising. If Alphamalt Fresh is combined with emulsifiers or enzymes that improve the bread volume and the structure attainable immediately after baking, freshness preservation can be extended to up to three weeks.


Varied freshness attribute requirements Freshness preservation can mean different things to different bakers and consumers, but all expectations involve the crumb properties. For some, freshness has to do with crumb softness or elasticity, for others it involves a certain crumb moisture.


With this Alphamalt Fresh line extension, MC Mühlenchemie supplies solutions for the individual needs of bakers and consumers. Alphamalt Fresh & Soft combines crumb


softness and moistness to give a moist chewing sensation that makes a fresh impression even days after baking. Alphamalt Fresh & Spring primarily enhances the elasticity of the crumb, providing a very good mouthfeel combined with crumb stability. “Hard on the outside, soft on the inside” is how consumers would describe these advantages.


Both products are suitable for yeast- raised baked goods such as sandwich bread, hamburger buns and the like, and can be dosed according to the desired level of freshness preservation. MC Mühlenchemie also offers enzyme-based solutions for extended fresh- keeping for special applications like tortillas, flatbread and cake flours.


Improving the taste of baked goods MC Mühlenchemie has


also expanded its


enzyme product portfolio with an innovation, Omnizym Taste, which makes the targeted flavour improvement of baked goods possible enzymatically for the first time, where it was previously only possible by using flavourings. Depending on the requirements, mills can offer


If Alphamalt Fresh is combined with emulsifiers or enzymes that improve the bread volume and the structure


attainable immediately after baking, freshness preservation can be extended to up to three weeks”


Kennedy’s Bakery Production December/January 2024/25 19


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36