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An innovative enzyme solution for making longer shelf life bread with less or no added sugar 
G. FENG (1), G. Feng (1). (1) Corbion, Lenexa, KS, U.S.A.

Bread shelf life is very important to industrial bakeries and  also to consumers.  A longer shelf life bread can not only improve the manufacture and distribution efficiencies, reduce food waste, but also can improve the quality, taste, and freshness of the bread throughout its shelf life. One of the biggest challenges in extending the bread shelf life is how to efficiently slow the bread staling, which is a deteriorating process  where bread become firmer, drier, less resilient, and less flavorful.  Significant efforts, both from academia and industries, have been made in developing better ingredient technologies that can slow or prevent the staling process, Technologies such as emulsifiers and enzymes were developed for this purpose and now are widely used in baking industries.  In this presentation, we will introduce a new synergistic enzyme technology that not only significantly improve the shelf life of bread, but also the reduction or removal of the added sugar in the bread formula. Our enzyme analysis and baking tests showed that while the shelf life extension enzymes are modifying the gelatinized starch molecules to retard the retrogradation or staling, they can also make small sugar molecules that can enhance the flavor and taste of the bread. In addition, sugar was found to be a strong inhibitor of the shelf life extension enzymes. Our studies showed that by reducing  or removing added sugar in bread formula, the functionality of the shelf life extension enzymes can be significantly improved, leading to a bread that stayed soft and fresh for longer time. Based on these findings, it became possible to design unique enzyme-based products that will allow bakers to formulate their bread with less or no sugar, while still maintain the desirable taste and flavor, and most importantly, deliver the freshness quality over an extended shelf life.    .

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