Ulrick and Short has strengthened its Synergie range of ingredients with two new starches to help the bakery industry improve the quality of batters - and therefore of finished products.

The UK-based clean label ingredient company has marketed the Synergie brand of cold-swelling starches for several years, initially mainly for processed food such as soups, sauces and ready meals. It has now developed new starches specifically for bakery recipes.

The new maize starches focus on controlling batter viscosity, a major challenge in mass production of bakery products. The starches are applied to products for the sweet bakery market such as muffins, celebration cakes, cookies, biscuits and also snacking.

"We can modify and control the crumb structure in cakes. We can extend the shelf life, increase the moistness over life; and also on fillings and toppings, there are a lot of products where we can improve performance and improve the eating experience," said director Adrian Short.

He added "we can look at reduction or removal of preservatives because we can control the water activity in cakes".

The ingredients, which are produced in Europe, Asia and South America, can be labelled simply as 'wheat flour', ‘corn flour' or ‘starch'.