Ferré & Consulting Blog (English Version)

Over recent years, claims for “naturalness” have been invading our supermarket shelves, with 16.3% of launches in France and 13.6% in Europe

Natural, authentic, free from preservatives, additive free…so many terms refer to this notion of returning to less processed ingredients – which are more authentic and functional – and to a reduction, or even elimination, of widely used additives. Encouraged by media coverage, the suspicion surrounding additives is further increasing this phenomenon, which is already well under way.

Consumers are calling for a return to ingredients they recognise.

Coordinated development of food processing techniques and additives

Today, additives form an integral part of the food industry. Technological processes are required for their production, and the development of these over time has improved their performance. There are several manufacturing methods from the most natural to the most artificial.

One of the reasons why additives are used is to keep food for longer – this was their original purpose developed almost 2000 years BC. The present-day objective of manufacturers in the baking industry is to meet the growing expectation of customers who are calling for more natural products. They must adopt the “clean label attitude” while maintaining the functional aspects of their ingredients. However, cutting down the list of ingredients by eliminating additives isn’t always a simple task. These substances have highly effective functional properties that are sometimes difficult to reproduce.

LCI expertise in the clean label business

Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients has forged a unique way of obtaining functional and authentic ingredients. We combine different varieties of cereals with a patented hydrothermal treatment process called farigel, which naturally modifies the intrinsic properties of natural cereals. Depending on the parameters adopted, we make a wide range of ingredients called functional flours, with high-performance properties for a wide array of applications. By combining these functional flours solutions to additives, allowing you to label your products “clean label”.

Clean label in bread making

In general, an additive is a substance that is used in small amounts to a food to endow it with certain characteristics and, therefore, make it marketable. Indeed, most of the products that we consume are produced industrially. This means they undergo all sorts of physical and chemical transformations, making them less bland – but giving them a restricted shelf life. Manufacturers therefore use additives to overcome this. In industrial bread making, complex in technical terms as additives provide a wide range of functions.

By eliminating them, several challenges arise concerning volume, texture and storage.

The process of replacing additives with other functional ingredients must therefore take three issues into account:

• The technological properties of the dough.
• The crumb structure.
• The taste and texture of the finished product.

Which additives are being replaced?

• DATA type emulsifiers (E472e) which form complexes with proteins, thereby improving the fermentation tolerance and volume of the bread.
• Monoglyceride type emulsifiers (E471) which form complexes with amylase and reduce the initial rigidity of the breadcrumbs. They also limit the swelling and solubility of starch granules and therefore reduce the protein/starch interactions.
• SSL type emulsifiers (E481) which form complexes with both proteins and starch.
• Lecithin (E322), which encourages water absorption in the dough, thereby increasing its tolerance
• Thickeners (E4xx) such as gum and sodium carboxy methyl cellulose which enables more water to be mixed in with the dough, thereby keeping the finished products soft.
• Ascorbic acid (E300) which, through its antioxidant properties, strengthens the gluten network and increases the tolerance and volume of finished products.

Making additive-free breadmaking improvers will therefore involve:

• Replacing E numbers with natural ingredients and processing aids.
• Simplifying the labelling on finished products by eliminating superfluous compounds.

In this context, the desire to develop a single improver per application turns out to be impossible, as such a solution does not produce satisfactory results – or at least results that are equivalent to products made with additives.

In order to obtain the same functions, improvers must meet the technical constraints of targeted applications and be specific to product groups: breakfast pastries, packaged bread and puff pastries.

Clean label in cake making

Food additives are already frequently used in industrial cakes. The most common are hydrocolloids which, by reacting with water molecules, change the rheology of their environment.

Hydrocolloids are used for:

• Thickening properties: without interacting with macromolecules, they reduce the mobility of the aqueous phase (e.g. carrageenans in set custard desserts).
• Gelling properties: by interacting with molecules, they form a three-dimensional network (e.g. pectin infillings and sauces).
• Stabilising properties: the two previous effects can prevent smaller or larger particles from separating in the aqueous phase: e.g. mixture of guar flour and xanthan gum in sauces.

Used in pastries, the water binging effects by adding stabilizers bring the following advantages:

• Control the rheology of the dough.
• Keep the cake moist.
• Keep the suspensoid property f hydrocolloids in the event of adding ingredients.

Controlling the dough rheology

The viscosity of dough is a critical issue for manufacturers. A dough that is too liquid will prevent the product from developing properly and the desired volume from being obtained. On the other hand, dough that is too thick will slow the pumps on the production lines.

Furthermore, for marbled textures, it is essential to have exactly the same regular dough for both parts. For these challenges, we have developed two “clean label” functional flours as alternatives to the hydrocolloids used: farigel wheat H1 and farigel wheat 7418. Incorporated from 1% to 5% of the total recipe, these invisible solutions, which can be labelled as “wheat flour”, will allow you to control the viscosity of your dough.

Keeping the cake moist

Moistness is a continuing objective for cakes (sponge cakes, madeleines, muffins, etc.). Manufacturers endeavour to increase both the initial moistness and shelf life.

To limit the retrogradation and staleness of products, while maintaining the dough characteristics and volume of finished products, we have worked on obtaining a tailored ingredient. Farigel wheat TM80 is extremely fluid granular functional flour with controlled particle size. Thanks to its controlled rheology and binding with water before and during baking, the product stays moist throughout its shelf life. An analysis of the texture shows greater suppleness and slower staling using 2% farigel wheat TM80 in a typical muffin recipe.

Suspension of added ingredients

For products with added ingredients, it is important to ensure these are evenly distributed across slices. Alternative solutions must therefore have highly effective viscosifying and suspensoid properties.

LCI offers farigel wheat 7418. Making up 1% to 3% of the total recipe, this “instant” reference (used cold) ensures that added ingredients are evenly distributed (for example, pieces of fruit or chocolate chips).

Ingredients additives, clean label, functional ingredients, labeling, LCI, preservatives

Aromatic´s TTT products

With fluctuating weather patterns and volatile import availability and tariffs, flour millers have had their work cut out to supply consistent and standard-meeting flour to the bread making community. Demand is set to rapidly outweigh supply in the coming years, putting further pressure on the industry, however, there is extensive research and development being carried out to ensure this vital base material is ready to make good quality, tasty bread.

Colin Simmonds, group development director, AB Mauri, said: “Flour is like many raw materials- they may look the same and behave the same. However, it is true that all bakers start with the same key raw materials, it’s juts that some do better and more with them.

“Much talk is spent on protein levels, but it’s not the actual level that is important it’s the quality that counts. And, adding gluten separately is always going to be expensive. The falling number or level of starch damage is also a contentious issue between miller and baker.”

Simmonds believes an increasingly contentious issue is the blending of wheat varieties to meet a customer driven specification. He said: “This can be a recipe for disaster in the bakery where incompatible wheat strengths are forced together and then at the most stressful moment – dough in the mixer – it all goes terribly wrong. But these “technical issues”, while important, do not illustrate the availability or the opportunity within the whole flour palette that’s available to the baker.

“The real beauty is the sheer spectrum of material which will go towards differentiation and added value. Look at the grain and flour varieties, going from wheat to soy to the “new kid on the block”, oat. As well as maximizing nature’s great gift of grains for flour, there is also the ability to include flour related materials that can compound and deliver unique propositions – and great tasting bread. There are many options and sequences, not just whole wheat, but wheat full of fibre or wheat germ or with added vitamins, seeds and other grains.”

Quality

Croissants with LCI´S Limalin

A challenge for the baking industry is to ensure consistent bread quality regardless of the quality of the flour used. Flour correction enzymes like Fungal Alpha-amylase and Amyloglucosidase are helping mills and bread improver meet this challenge, not only by correcting the falling number of flour but also to achieve desired end-product characteristics.

Flour correction enzymes allow bakeries to obtain improved oven spring, loaf volumes and crumb texture for their bread, and bio-solutions leader Novozymes has been the industry standard for reliable flour correction for over 40 years.

Fungamyl standardizes the flour at the mill to compensate for fluctuating flour quality, helping maintain the production of poly-, oligo-, and monosaccharide during leaving, ensuring good, even structure of the bread crumb and high bread volume, as well as increased crust colour and acceleration of the proofing step.

New products

Toast bread with LCI´S functional flour

Novozymes is a key industry player, however, there were a number of new launches in 2009 with Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients (LCI) and Aromatic both making ripples with their “natural” product ranges.

Limagrain launched LimaLin, an Omega 3-rich ingredient made from wheat flour and linseed flour, suitable for use in a range of bakery products-with just 5 g of LimaLin, bread, cookies or cereals become a source of Omega 3. For pastry, using LimaLin increases softness in mini-cakes, while fat reduction becomes possible in cookies or biscuits.

Replacing additives or reducing the list of ingredients presents a challenge for the bread making industry – but LCI claims putting solutions into practice need not cost more.

“LCI Glusafe is an innovative solution for cutting costs”, says Anne Lionnet, LCI marketing manager for bakery. “It significantly reduces the incorporation or cheat gluten (-40 per cent), which is an expensive ingredient used by all manufacturers in the bread making industry worldwide.”

While additives form an integral part of the baking industry, the objective of manufacturers is to meet the growing expectation of customers for more natural products and they must therefore adopt the “clean label attitude”, while maintaining the functional aspects of their ingredients.

Lionnet continued: “Cutting down the list of ingredients by eliminating additives isn’t always a simple task as these substances have highly effective functional properties that are sometimes difficult to reproduce.”

LCI make a wide range of ingredients, including functional flours, with high-performance properties for a wide range of applications. Combining these with the other baking ingredients produces alternative solutions to additives, allowing manufacturers to label products “clean label”.

Lionnet added: “Our research has enabled specific additive-free improvers to be developed that maintain the technological properties of dough, maintain the structural qualities of the bread crumb, and keep the taste and texture of the finished product throughout its shelf life.”

Aromatic

In a similar vein, Swedish company Aromatic has launched TTT-products (Swedish acronym for “time, temperature and pressure”), a range of heat-treated functional flours and grains, which are made from pure wheat, rye, barley or oats and available in different grades.

TTT products are heat-treated through a special process which helps them obtain a number of positive and useful characteristics. Without adding any E-numbers to the label, these products help prolong freshness, improve softness and extend the shelf life of the finished bread. The products can replace ingredients like guar gums, vital gluten, enzymes (amylases), pre-gelatinised wheat flour, cold-swelling starches, fibre ingredients, milk etc. in existing recipes, and instead, the bread will be improved by natural means.

Aromatic’s marketing coordinator, Kaarina Pettersson said: TTT-products are often compared with extruded flours, but there is an important difference to consider. Due to the fact that the botanical structure is maintained in TTT-products, the dough does not get sticky and difficult to handle as it does with extruded flours.

“TTT allows bread to be produced with natural ingredients and be prepared without time-consuming scalding and soaking procedures. The end result contains more fibre, stays soft and moist for longer, is less crumbly and free from milk and GMO.

“If this sounds appealing then TTT will be the perfect choice. You will also benefit from a higher dough yield which will improve the efficiency in your production.”

No chemicals or additives are used during the processing of the raw materials and TTT-processed products have a reduced microbiological status.

Depending on product, the shelf life varies from six months (flour) to one year (grits and cut grains), and the products are all of pure vegetable origin and free from GMO. Furthermore, they are all almost non dusting and free from enzymatic activity.

With so much choice in the market place, the final word of advice comes from Simmonds. Despite creating opportunities for new products, he believes these all present different issues for the baker, such as how to maintain moistness in grain bread when grains take all the moisture; what happens when too much fibre is included and the bread tastes dry and mealy; and how can added vitamins be legally promoted.

He added: “These are all real issues which bakers experience as differentiation often demands complexity. My advice is to call your technology partner and he will advise and offer practical help in bakery application and formulation.”

Ingredients Aromatic, LCI, Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients, LimaLin, TTT products