12/09/08 Throughout recent times, consumer tastes have been honed to enjoy a wide variety of quality bread products. But manufacturers are posed with an escalating dilemma - how to counteract the ever-rising ingredient prices with cost-effective alternatives that ensure bread improvement. With bread remaining an important element in daily diets throughout the world, this sophisticated market demands a high quality product that always meets their expectations - and does not dent their wallets.

But the good news is that enzyme solutions are offering viable alternatives to traditional oil-based and chemical improvers, strengthening and conditioning the dough to enable easy processing in the bakery.  Potentially replacing traditional improvers by 50-100%, these lipases are capable of excellent performance irrespective of variations in flour quality, while eliminating acidic off-flavors associated with some conditioning methods.

So how do these enzymes achieve such impressive results? Lipases work on the lipids naturally present in wheat flour, and modify non-polar as well as polar lipids such as lecithin. These modified polar lipids increase the stability of gas cells in the dough, resulting in better dough stability, improved loaf volume, and an improved bread crumb structure due to finer, more uniform cells, and a silkier texture. The crumb colour is whiter, and softness is improved by the rise in volume and more uniform gas cells. The amount of enzyme required to replace traditional conditioners depends upon the formulation of the dough, the quality of the flour, and the baking procedure. When using Novozymes' Lipopan Xtra and Lipopan F, a lower concentration per dose is required in comparison to similar products.  An additional benefit offered by these pioneering enzymes is the fact that they each target a specific fermentation type, Lipopan Xtra developed for long fermentation dough and Lipopan F
working with short fermentation methods, meaning that bread makers pay only for a solution specifically targeting their particular needs. And their robustness in flour means that both Novozymes' solutions demonstrate excellent tolerance to variations in flour quality.

This new generation of enzymatic solutions not only provide a cost-effective alternative to costly traditional dough improvers, but also bring new innovation to increase the quality of baked goods.