Puratos, a Belgium-based company specialising in the manufacture of raw materials for bakers, pastry chefs and chocolatiers, has just launched a new production unit for natural sourdoughs.

Located at the group's Andenne site in Belgium and representing an investment of €21 million, the new unit is part of the group's bio-fermentation centre and offers top level employment for experts in the field.

The objective is to accurately reproduce, on an industrial scale, the traditional baker's methods of preparing sourdough cultures.

Few bakers still prepare sourdough the traditional way. Besides being a time-consuming task requiring considerable expertise, the outcome cannot be guaranteed as it relies on many parameters such as flour quality, the water, ambient temperature and so forth. This explains why the majority of bakers have replaced sourdough starters with yeast - much easier to handle even if it does not compare from a flavour perspective.

Several studies conducted by the Puratos group in the 90s found that consumers, including young people, prefer the taste of the good bread of yesteryear. Puratos initiated an extensive research programme that led to the creation of the ‘Sapore', meaning flavour in Italian, range of natural sourdoughs. These leavens are based on lactic acid bacteria - the micro-organisms responsible for triggering fermentation - specific to particular countries.

The investment in Andenne complements the other Puratos group sourdough factories in Saint-Vith, near the German border in Belgium, and in Cherry Hill, near Philadelphia in the United States.