Enzymes to the Rescue
Enzymes are the little secret in every baker’s arsenal. They help with all dough challenges, from unpredictable gluten content in wheat flour to the finickiness of gluten-free and plant-based products.
Enzymes, including dough improvers, are fast and efficient ingredients that require small quantities – in the range of 10-150 parts per million (ppm) – to get the needed results. Which makes them helpful both for the baker and for the consumer, who wants clean(er) label baked products that ease their mind from fears of unknown ingredients but also have a long shelf life and help them fight food waste. Ingredient companies came up with a series of solutions in the past years.
Kerry’s Biobake Fibre Helps Dough Processability and Increases Volume in Rye Bread
Kerry, a market leader in taste and nutrition, launched its new Biobake Fibre enzyme solution into Europe’s EUR17bn traditional and organic rye, rye-wheat and wholemeal bakery markets. This innovative solution delivers superior finished bread quality, improves volume and softness, and works to sustainably reduce energy and operational costs by maintaining good dough processability and ease of slicing.
Biobake Fibre is a patented solution that delivers these product benefits with no negative impacts on the traditional taste and authentic aromas of rye bread formulations over their shelf life.
Rye or rye-wheat blended breads are a significant category in European bread markets, comprising 17% of the almost 15,000 new bread launches that occurred globally between 2021 and 2023. Rye bread is considered to be a quality source of healthy fiber and, in fact, “high source of fiber” is the third-ranked claim on rye bread launches conducted over the same time frame. As consumers sought healthier alternatives coming out of the pandemic, there was a 16% rise in consumption of rye bread globally in 2022 and 2023.
Biobake Fibre allows for significant productivity gains by increasing bread volume up to 24% and softness up to 55%; improving softness will naturally reduce the likelihood of waste. Since bakery products represent the world’s largest category of food waste, enhancing softness and eating quality is a sustainability benefit that both customers and consumers will appreciate. The new enzyme solution maintains good dough processability, improves bread slicing, and has no negative impact on taste or aroma. Additionally, it is organic, kosher, halal and vegetarian.
“This technology delivers improved finished product quality, optimized slicing, and good dough machinability,” said Deborah Waters, PhD, Global Product Director, Enzymes at Kerry. “This can help reduce process downtime and support a sustainable reduction in operational costs that will appeal to bakers looking for ways to be more cost-efficient, and reduce bread waste.”
The Biobake Fibre enzyme solution works on rye’s high concentration of non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs)—important functional components, certainly, but ones that tend not to be process-friendly during dough handling. In rye dough, NSPs are functionally more important than protein given that rye proteins are unable to form gluten in the way wheat proteins can.
NSPs negatively affect water distribution during dough production because of their water-binding properties, resulting in a dough that is difficult to process; this ultimately leads to reduced bread volume and limits final bread quality. Biobake Fibre reduces the NSP water-binding capability and allows for better hydration and dough development. The NSPs then create consistent dough rheology, improving tolerance and gas retention, and in turn will increase specific volume, leading to enhanced crumb texture, and avoiding creation of small crumb bubbles that can make slicing more difficult.
Kerry also launched Biobake EgR, an innovative enzyme solution that decreases the number of eggs needed in a wide variety of baking applications, enabling European manufacturers to make the switch from caged to free-range or organic eggs without facing increased costs.
IFF’s ENOVERA 2000 Range Strengthens Dough
A next-generation enzyme dough strengthener, ENOVERA 2000 range is designed for bakery manufacturers interested in vital gluten replacement, particularly in challenging applications such as whole wheat bread. This breakthrough enzymatic innovation allows operational cost reductions without quality or volume trade-offs.
The dough strengtheners deliver dependability throughout production and provides superior finished product quality for whole wheat bread in comparison to existing alternatives in the market. An enzyme technology, ENOVERA 2000 range performs equivalently or better than traditional emulsifiers and with a reduced dependence on aids used to compensate for inconsistencies.
“Managing productivity and protecting cost margins is key for bakeries in Europe right now,” said Aurelie Gammelin, global product manager for Bakery IFF. “ENOVERA 2000 range is a true industry breakthrough; it reduces up to 50 percent of vital gluten and brings functional equivalence to traditional emulsifiers–handling process variances and overdosing, as well as whole wheat applications. Our solution gives bakers the peace of mind they need to achieve their immediate business goals and operational priorities while still creating a great eating experience for consumers.”
Read the rest of the article in the fourth issue of European Baker & Biscuit.