New Insights Gathered into the Flaking Phenomenon in Baking

The EU-FRESHBAKE project consortium has extensively studied the energy consumption and quality parameters of Part Baked Frozen (PBF) technology.The challenge in this technology is to obtain the same quality of bread, as that made from a direct baking process. Crust flaking is one of the main drawbacks.

22 Nov 2010 --- The EU-FRESHBAKE project entitled: ”Freshly Baked Breads with Improvement of Nutritional Quality and Low Energy Demanding for the Benefit Of the Consumer and of the Environment,” was carried out with the financial support of the European Commission, in the 6th EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6). Particularly in the Thematic priority Area 5 “Food quality and safety”. The particular area of focus was BAKE-OFF TECHNOLOGY (BOT).

Universities, Research Centres and industrial partners from seven European countries worked together on three main objectives:
1) the sensorial quality of BAKE-OFF products compared to traditionally baked bread
2) the improvement of nutritional properties and reduction of the glycemic index (GI)
3) ways to use less energy during the production of BAKE-OFF products.
Standard, organic and gluten-free BOT products were all part of the project.
To achieve this goal, three specific indices were established: the QI (Quality Index) the NQI (Nutrition Quality Index) and the EI (Energy Efficiency Index).

The project was coordinated by Professor Alain Le Bail from ONIRIS (France) and participating research centres and Universities were: CEMAGREF (France), Krakow University (Poland), Zagreb University (Croatia), IATA-CSIC (Spain) and TTZ-EIBT (Germany).

Industrial partners were:  Dr Shär (Italy), Bezgluten (Poland), Biofournil (France), MIWE (Germany) and Puracor - Puratos Group (Belgium).

Through its participation in high quality international research projects, Puratos strives to continuously improve its advanced scientific know-how and expertise in bakery technology.

The EU-FRESHBAKE project consortium has extensively studied the energy consumption and quality parameters of Part Baked Frozen (PBF) technology.

Part Baked Frozen (PBF) technology is amongst all Bake-Off Technologies the most commonly used.  The PBF technology is an answer to the demand from bake-off shops looking to be able to achieve a faster response to consumer demands. The PBF technology provides the possibility for bake-off shops to offer freshly baked breads using a simple oven and minimally trained staff within the space of just a few minutes.

The challenge in this technology is to obtain the same quality of bread, as that made from a direct baking process. Crust flaking is one of the main drawbacks.

Thanks to our participation in the EU-FRESHBAKE project, Puratos has acquired new insights into the flaking phenomenon, its causes and the effect of processing conditions, and as a result has been able to improve the recipe, additive and process advice provided towards our customers.

Part Baked frozen bakery items refer to either 'conventional' part baked items or to 'quick bake' bread items.

'Conventional' part baked frozen bakery products are partially baked products without a crust and requiring a final baking of minimum 8 minutes to form and colour the crust. The surface of the part baked items should remain flexible upon freezing, in order to avoid excessive crust flaking after the final (second) bake.

'Quick bake' frozen bakery products are fully baked products with a fully coloured crust after the first bake, and just require a final "reheating" step of 2 to 4 minutes.

For the conventional part baked frozen products, Puratos has developed the new Double Bake Acti-Plus improver, resulting in: 

o good oven jump and excellent definition of the cuts
o limited (side) collapsing of the bread
o limited crust flaking after 1st bake
o reduced staling rate of the breads after 2nd bake
o applicable for a wide range of parbaked products, including those packed in MAP (modified atmosphere packaging). 

Next to the conventional part baked process, Puratos has also improved its technology concept targeting the ultimate convenience, namely freshly baked bread in only a handful of minutes. The use of our Bakevit at 2.5% together with an adjusted process allows you to achieve this challenge.