Origin
Enzymes are naturally present in many living organisms such as animals, plants, bacteria and fungi. There, they participate in metabolic processes. Also, they can be found in food materials such as cereal flours, fruits and vegetables.1
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Commercial Production
Commercially, enzymes are produced by fermentation. Food-grade microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi are used. They are produced as by-products of molasses or other carbon-source fermentation. Enzymes can be produced for specific activities and uses by downstream purification, conditioning and standardization.1
Function
Similar to other enzymes, ones used in bakery products can facilitate chemical reactions without undergoing any change in their molecular structure. They can be utilized continuously as long as they are not denatured. For example, heat can stop their activity. Also, there needs to be enough substrate in the flour. Examples of substrates are proteins, fats, sugars, starch or non-starch polysaccharides (cellulose, glucans, arabinoxylans).1,2
Primary uses in bakery products:3,4
- Fermentation aides
- Mix reducers
- Modifiers of dough handling properties
- Dough strengtheners
- Crumb softeners (anti-staling agents)
Types of enzymes and their function in bakery products:1,3,4
IUPAC/IUB classification
Type
Chemical bond cleaved
Reaction catalysis/hydrolysis
Specific function
Hydrolases
Protease
Protein peptide bond
- Reduces mixing time
- Modifies dough handling properties
- Improves pan flow
- Improves dough machinability
- Redistributes water in dough
Lipase
Fats Ester (alcohol-fatty acid) bond
- Produces emulsifiers from fats
- Stabilizes gas cells in batter and dough
- Improves batter aeration
- Softens crumb, helping fight staling
Amylases
Starch glycosidic bond
- Improves fermentation
- Produces maltose and glucose from starch (yeast food)
- Anti-staling agents
Cellulase
Cellulose- glycosidic bond
- Redistributes water in dough
- Improves gluten matrix cohesiveness and gas retention
- Modifies dough consistency and handling properties
Xylanase / Pentosanase / Hemicellulase
Arabinoxylans glycosidic bond
Maltase, invertase
Disaccharides, maltose and sucrose glycosidic bond
- Improves fermentation
- Produces monosaccharides (yeast food)
- Improves crust color, through browning reactions
Asparaginase
Proteins amide (carbon-nitrogen) bond
- Reduces acrylamide in thermally processed foods
Oxidoreductases
Glucose oxidase
Glucose oxidation into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide
- Strengthens dough
- Aggregates gluten-forming proteins, through the oxidation of sulfhydryl (SH) groups to disulphide (SS) bond
- Improves mixing tolerance
- Enhances dough gas retention capacity
Hexose oxidase
Oxidation of hexose sugars (less specific) by atmospheric oxygen into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide
Lipoxygenase
Fatty acids oxidation to produce peroxides
- Similar functionality to that of glucose/hexose oxidase
- Bleaching effect (destruction of flour carotenoid pigments).
Transferases
Transglutaminase
Acyl-transfer reaction between carboxamide group of peptide-bound glutamine residues and a
variety of primary amines
- Similar functionality to glucose/hexose oxidase although using different mechanism (introduction of covalent cross-links between glutamine and lysine).
Shelf Life Extension with Enzymes
Application
Bakery enzymes are micro ingredients usually added at levels of 0.0050.01% (50100 ppm based on flour weight). How much depends on the formulation and process needs. They require special conditions for optimum activity and performance:1,2
- Acidity (pH): Most bakery varieties perform well within the pH range of 4.07.5.
- Temperature: Chemical reaction rates double for every 18°F (10°C) increase in temperature. Optimal temperature for most commercial ones is 95140°F/3560°C.
- Contact time between enzyme and substrate: Enzymes need time to act on the substrate.
- Aqueous dispersion medium to support chemical reactions.
- Amount of substrate: they work better when excess of substrate is available.
- Adequate enzyme dosage
FDA Regulation
Enzymes used in the bakery industry are GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) food additives in the US. The FDA regulates their source or origin (food-compatible) and establishes limits to their use (if applicable) based on GMP.5
References
- Mathewson, P.R. Enzymes, 2nd edition, Eagan Press Handbook Series, AACC International, Inc., , pp. 1105.
- Kuddus, M. Introduction to Food Enzymes. Enzymes in Food Biotechnology. Production, Applications, and Future Prospects, Academic Press, Elsevier Inc., , pp. 118.
- Van Oort, M. Enzymes in Bread Making. Enzymes in Food Technology, 2nd edition, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, , pp. 103143.
- Rosell, C.M., and Dura, A. Enzymes in Bakeries. Enzymes in Food and Beverage Processing, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, , pp. 171195.
- Smith, J. Enzymes. Food Additives Data Book, 2nd edition, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., , pp. 366454.
- Colakoglu, A and Özkaya, H. Potential use of exogenous lipases for DATEM replacement to modify the rheological and thermal properties of wheat flour dough. Journal of Cereal Science,Volume 55, Issue 3, , ISSN -. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S?fbclid=IwAR170KE53BredxMO0ENJJyJPS8TGD6k1nhcoRYvQDgnkO6jlxqfkoIkVIcE
- Baking is a common name for the production of bakery products such as bread, cakes, cookies, crackers, biscuits, cookies, tortillas, etc.
- Enzymes are becoming very important for the baking industry.
- In baking, enzymes are used to produce products of consistent quality by enabling better dough handling, providing fat-repellent properties, and controlling crumb texture, color, taste, moisture, and volume.
- Depending on the raw materials used in baked goods, amylases, hemicellulases, lipases, oxidases, cross-linking enzymes and proteases can be used in baked goods.
Application of Enzymes in the Bakery Industry
- Baking enzymes are used as flour additives and in dough conditioners to replace chemical ingredients.
- Use of different types of enzymes :
· Amylases: convert starch into sugar and produce dextrins.
· Oxidases: strengthen and bleach the dough
· Hemicellulases: to improve the gluten strength
· Proteases: reduce the elasticity of the gluten.
- All these enzymes together play an important role in maintaining the volume, softness of the crumb, crispness of the crust, coloring or browning of the crust and maintaining freshness.
Application of Baking Enzymes in Making the Bread
- Bread is the product of baking a mixture of flour, water, salt, yeast, and other ingredients.
- The process of making bread includes:
· To make a dough that rises easily.
· To make good bread, the dough must be stretchy enough to expand during fermentation.
· The bread dough must be elastic.
- For decades, alpha-amylases have been used to make bread.
- Due to rapid developments in biotechnology, new enzymes have recently been made available to the bakery industry.
· Xylanase: improves the machinability of dough.
· Lipase: gluten strengthening effect, which results in a more stable dough and a better crumb structure, similar to DATEM or SSL/CSL.
Application of Baking Enzymes in Cake and Muffin Production
- Cakes are made by mixing the ingredients into a liquid dough and including air to form a mousse.
- The air expands during baking and the mousse turns into a sponge.
- Emulsifiers are added to facilitate air absorption and improve the dispersion of fats in the dough and to stabilize expanding gas bubbles in the dough during baking.
- These emulsifiers can be replaced by a commercial lipase in cake production.
- After baking, this leads to an increase in the specific volume of the cake and the preservation of a fine crumb structure.
- Food quality and perceived freshness are also improved.
- If the quantity of eggs is reduced, the quality of the cake will deteriorate.
- This can be remedied by adding phospholipase.
- Phospholipases increase the volume of the cake and improve its properties during storage, such as increased cohesion, flexibility, and elasticity.
- Starch-degrading enzymes prevent the staling of the cake.
- Amylase can be used in a cake powder conditioner, which can improve the softness of the crumb and the shelf life of the product.
Application of Enzymes in Biscuit, Cookie and Cracker Production
- The production of biscuits generally involves several phases such as mixing, resting, processing, and finally baking.
- Sodium metabisulphite (SMS) is currently used in the baking industry to soften the cookie dough.
- It is used in the industry to reduce shrinkage of dough pieces and irregular size of baked goods.
- Protease can be used in crackers to increase the extensibility of the dough.
· Proteases hydrolyze the internal peptide bonds of gluten proteins, while SMS increases elasticity by breaking the disulfide bonds.
· The texture of the resulting biscuits will also be more open and tender.
- The use of papain with an oxidizing enzyme (such as glucose oxidase) may facilitate the production of biscuits.
- Manufacturer for mimicking the effect of sulphite in the pulp.
- The combination of papain and glucose oxidase results in a rapid decrease in dough consistency to the desired level.
- Hemicellulose and cellulose-degrading enzymes make the dough softer and require less water,
less energy input, which ultimately leads to increased emissions from the plant.
- The use of hemicellulases in the cracker pulp may result in partial degradation of the hemicellulose which reduces the binding capacity of the water.
· More water is available and a softer paste is obtained.
· Shortens cooking time and improves quality by cooking more evenly, resulting in fewer controls.
- Alpha-amylases play a subordinate role in the production of biscuits.
- They are able to produce dextrins from damaged starch and play a role in enzymatic browning during baking, resulting in darker biscuits.
- The addition of an a-amylase (fungus) potentially inhibits control and produces a loosening effect and improved flavor development.
- . Improve water distribution in the dough, resulting in greater uniformity and therefore fewer control problems after baking.
- The use of a pentosanase reduces cracking in crackers by lowering the water content and is particularly useful in low-fat and/or high-fibre formulations.
- Low-fat and/or high-fibre pulps require a higher water addition to achieve good machinability.
- This water must also be removed during cooking, which increases cooking time.
- The addition of hemicellulases results in a lower water binding capacity, so there is more water available for easier processing.
Use of Baking Enzymes in Tortilla
- Flour tortillas are made from wheat flour, water, baking fat and salt, preservatives, leavening agents, reducing agents, and emulsifiers.
- The flight of tortillas incorporates the starch in the amorphous phase and does not significantly disturb the crystallization of amylopectin.
- Alpha-amylase can partially hydrolyze amylose, with the starch forming a bridge to the crystalline region and protruding amylopectin branches.
- Starch hydrolysis reduces the rigid structure and plasticity of starch polymers during storage.
- The flexibility of the tortillas results from the combined functionality of amylose gel and amylopectin, which solidifies the starch grain during storage.
FAQ about Baking Enzymes
Enzymes are widely used in the baking sector. The first basic ingredient of cake is flour. On average, flour contains 82% starch, 12% protein and 3% fibre. Flour also contains natural enzymes in the presence of water. These are involved in the process by which the dough gets its proper consistency. These enzymes include amylases, which produce a substrate for the yeast enzymes that carry out alcoholic fermentation, proteases, which increase the volume of the dough, and xylanases, which increase the elasticity of the dough.
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A major part of designing an enzyme system for a customer is to determine where this material is best needed. I think it is safe to say that in most cases it works during the preparation of the dough and perhaps also during the fermentation of the dough. That is when you will chop the small pieces of starch. But it actually only works if you take it out of the oven.
And over time, the larger starch molecules might crystallize or want to be reversed. But the small pieces of starch that you have created in the mixing process are still there and ready to prevent this crystallization. That is correct. The active effect of the enzyme occurs during the production of the dough. But the functionality occurs after baking.
That was one of the challenges in the premature release of the enzymes, because people dont know that something has happened in a ball and a fermentation process and whether it is deactivated. They do not want to activate the enzymes in the product after cooking.
Decades ago, people did not really know how and when to use them. Bakers have had many bad experiences by using either the wrong type of enzyme or too much of it. An extreme example is when you had to put too much amylase in your dough. This amylase would start to break down the starch in all directions. And you could end up with an almost liquid dough. So this is an extreme example of the excessive use of an enzyme. Most amylases available today are designed to be deactivated during baking.
Which enzyme can a baker use to increase the volume?
There are many interactions between the different aspects of baking. This also applies to the way enzymes interact with baked goods. If I give you an example, there are several ways to influence volume. One of the enzymes we work with is a class of enzymes called proteases.
And instead of breaking down carbohydrates or starch, as we talked about amylase, the beet enzymes break down the protein, they break down the gluten. So they can weaken the gluten network. So if you have just the right amount of enzymes, you might be able to reduce the tension in the dough and make it rise a little more. So this is one possible approach.
Another approach would be to use an enzyme that produces carbohydrate fragments, so that the yeast can make use of its food and make the yeast more productive by producing more gas. And then you have more pressure to increase the volume. So I think what I am trying to say is that there are a lot of multiple interactions and we try to keep that in mind when we design an enzyme system.
Rarely do we design an enzyme system with one type of enzyme or one enzyme that is measured by trying to affect several functions simultaneously. And it depends very much on the specific application. It depends on the process used by the customer.
Do you have something for my low sugar dough?
Because, you know, you cannot add more yeast, and adding more years is not the solution. So the solution that Aaron Clinton proposed was to add an enzyme to the clote, cut up the carbohydrates and give these foods more nutrition. We may have to turn more knobs than just providing carbohydrate fragments or yeast. We may also have to play with other features to make it a complete success. But yes, the logic you have set out is absolutely correct. It is the kind of thing where you can use an enzyme to solve a problem that you have here
Do you have a lot of requests for the baking enzymes?
Yes, it is very common for industrial bakers to face difficulties due to fluctuations in their flour supply. And they may have a recipe and a process that is set up in such a way that, for example, we develop a sub-rule that perfectly fills the dependencies of each one, perfectly shaped, in the whole tray. And then a new batch of flour arrives and suddenly the moulds are no longer full and the dough is too firm.
We are able to provide suppliers with formulated tools that allow them to modulate this extensibility to compensate for variations in their incoming flour. Sometimes we do this for a customer, and it only needs to be done once, and he is satisfied with the performance of his dough. In other cases, we have to show a baker how to use this particular tool and he adjusts the amount used when the type of flour changes.
We have ready-to-use products that customers can try to see if this solves their problem. But we are also happy to formulate a specific solution for them to do that. This specific solution means that you dont use the baking enzymes in every production. It would be in production. The dough seems to be more Buckie.