The Right Time For Enzymes

The catalyst effect of enzymes is well known to bakers far and wide. But they can also help in cost cutting, as writer David Abbott found out.

Bakers are now well used to the idea that using enzymes is a good way to move if you want to improve quality and extend shelf life. But there’s another aspect of enzymes which is just as, if not more important in the current tough economic climate; enzymes can also help bakers to make considerable cost savings.

Enzymes are nature’s catalysts and in the chemical reactions which need to occur in bread production, used carefully they can help speed up and improve or facilitate particular reactions, helping to improve both the production process and the product.
That last point also helps to underline though, that developing enzymes that work in the right way is high tech stuff; this is a business where knowledge and research are absolutely essential.
Enzymes exist in flour and bakers have always had enzymes doing small wonders in their bread.
Bakers looking for some ingenious ways of cutting costs could do worse than to think carefully about using enzymes.
Some chemical reactions require a lot of energy of various types, and enzymes, which are only needed in small amounts and which generally work in mild conditions, can play a big role in cutting costs, as well as helping to make a better tasting product. Of course, enzymes are not something which bakers would buy directly themselves; they tend to be bought and used by ingredient suppliers and sold on, for example, in the form of improvers.
But although their role is easily obscured, it is nonetheless having great effects in the industry. Recent developments, for example, have seen enzymes used to make more flexible and dough which is easier to handle, reduce the use of salt and shortening and emulsifiers.
Emulsifiers, in particular, can be reduced significantly through the use of enzymes. Careful use of enzymes can allow yeast to work more continuously during fermentation, proofing and the early stage of baking.
This provides a better volume and crumb texture. With rising costs foremost in mind, it’s also worth remembering that enzymes, by making for a more efficient baking process, help to save costs on flour, yeast and shortening dosages.
Enzymes have a long history and go back over 100 years, but using enzymes in the bakery sector is relatively new and applying them in the industry started from around the 1980s; but in the mid 1980s developments in genetic engineering enabled great strides to be made.
There are of course a number of players in the enzyme business, but one major player in the industry is Denmark based Novozymes. The company has around 5000 employees across the globe and a turnover worth around €1billion in 2007. The company produces on three continents; North America, Europe and China and has R & D facilities in several locations as well.
Pal Ladsten, Regional Marketing Manager for Cereal Foods in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, points out that Novozymes like to say that they help to produce more with less. That’s basically what enzymes do and the idea of ‘more with less’ has become something of a company mantra according to Ladsten.
It’s not just a better quality of product and a cost saving to the baker either, explains Ladsten. Enzymes are also good for the environment. That’s because using enzymes means that less water is used and therefore less energy.
One Novozymes product Novamyl helps to keep bread fresh and Ladsten says that is not it’s only benefit. Novamyl helps to reduce the amount of wasted bread in the chain between bakery and retailer, but more than that, says Ladsten, it helps reduce emissions. For every kilogram used, says Ladsten, emissions are reduced by 2.2 tons. That corresponds to around about a 5 per cent reduction in emissions in the lifecycle of a typical loaf of bread.

GREENHOUSE GASES CUT
For a big industrial bakery, that would be equivalent to a reduction of about 10,000 tons of greenhouse gases every year. Of course, bio-technology has its critics, but these are pretty impressive benefits which should cause anyone to think carefully before drawing too hasty conclusions; it needs to be emphasised that enzymes are not genetically modified organisms, just entirely natural and biologically produced molecules.
Ladsten points out that Novozymes, which has a nearly 50 per cent share of the market, was the company which brought the first enzyme to successfully keep bread both fresh and soft and the first company to introduce a lipase with dough strengthening capabilities. It’s a company with a strong track record of innovation quality and reliability.
Producing enzymes for a wide range of different uses, the company has a knowledge base which is characterised by strength in depth and its’ technical experts are used to working in different industries. This means that they are adept at spotting innovative solutions to clients’ problems as well as being able to think flexibly.
Novozymes’ firm belief is that what separates them from the rest of the field in a sector which really justifies the term ‘knowledge economy’ is how much resource they can put into R&D and the development of new products.
Ladsten says that 13-14 per cent of turnover goes back into R&D and more than 800 plus employees work in R&D. In a fiercely competitive industry like biotechnology firms have to come up with new technology and the ability to do that sets apart the one hit wonders from those companies who are in for the long haul.

GREAT BENEFITS
Novozymes’ most recent enzyme product is Acrylaway. This enzyme reduces the level of acrylamide in certain bakery products and yet at the same time doesn’t affect the taste, flavour, colour or the eating quality in any way at all.
Now that is a great benefit, since acrylamide has been identified as a potential carcinogen since 2002 when scientists at the Swedish Food Administration first reported unexpectedly high levels of acrylamide, found to cause cancer in laboratory rats, in carbohydrate-rich foods.
Research carried out by food scientists in the UK found that extending the yeast fermentation period was one procedure which could reduce acrylamide levels.
But what Acrylaway offers is a way of speeding up and improving these potential benefits and in a way which is more energy efficient. That, in a nutshell is the beauty of enzymes.
Ladsten says that there are three interrelated key factors driving the increasing popularity of enzymes; government regulation, consumer demand, and bread manufacturers fighting for market share and value. Government regulation has had a big impact in the food industries, promoting clean label products and making it necessary for manufacturers to list E-numbers.
Under regulations governing food labels in many countries both in and outside the European Union, many enzymes are not defined as additives, and so do not need to be listed and this is encouraging bakers to use enzymes in place of additives.
For their part, consumers are keen to have the beneficial effects already mentioned such as softness and freshness of baked produce which can be achieved by using enzymes.
And of course, a key concern for manufacturers is to keep customers satisfied, comply with regulation, and to produce in the most economically efficient way.
Using enzymes gives manufacturers a clear route to joining up all these required elements. For sure, enzymes are not a panacea for all our problems, either in food production or in business; but they certainly provide a pretty impressive illustration of the way that technological know-how can lead to improvements in both fields.
But maybe the real icing on the cake comes from the environmental benefits of using enzymes. As has already been mentioned, using a product like Novamyl can help make big reductions in emissions. But Pal Ladsten points out that this is where the needs of manufacturers, the requirements of government, and consumer demand can be seen to create a virtuous circle. The trend towards clean label products and the requirements for more environmentally friendly production processes, often seen as an additional cost, or even a burden to business, can in fact become key factors in business success.
Manufacturers can make considerable savings by turning down a green path; Ladsten cites research by Price Waterhouse Cooper which found that consumers do notice and care that companies act in a responsible manner when it comes to the environment.
Companies which are trusted by consumers and which are seen to be concerned about their environmental impact and doing something about it, stand to be rewarded in the marketplace.
That’s a message which Novozymes is taking to heart. Andrew Dinsdale, Account Manager for the UK, summing up, puts it like this: “For us the last year has been exceptional; enzyme sales have been good, the market for enzymes seems to be increasing and in the bakery sector we had a very good year. Sales in Central and Western Europe have been exceptional and there is general growth globally.”
It’s not always easy to be an optimist in the food industry; but the recent success story of enzymes does seem to bear out the old truth that one person’s misfortune is just another’s opportunity.