With better technological advances, manufacturers are
employing newer methods in food production with the aim to increase
output in terms of both quality and quantity.
Due to the greater
demand for bakery products and need for larger volume of production,
manufacturers have realised the important role additives and
preservatives play in the business today. This has resulted in the
emergence of steadily growing market for supplies of subsidiary
ingredients such as additives, preservatives and sweeteners.
The
use of additives and preservatives is not only driven by factors such as
improved quality, enhanced taste, better texture and appearance, but
also important aspects such as to maximise the yield of the product and
to gain higher volumes in shorter span of time for commercial
manufacturers.
In this column, we have attempted to elaborate and
understand the exact role of commonly-used additives, preservatives and
sweeteners in the process of producing baked goods and the latest
options available in the industry.
An additive is any substance
that is added to a product, but is not the main ingredient of the
product. This addition is for technological purpose of manufacturing and
processing of the product. An additive may or may not affect the
nutritive value of the product.
Similarly, preservatives are
substances used in the product with the aim to increase the shelf life,
or in other words, to prevent food spoilage during storage and
transportation.
Sweeteners are food agents that are substituted
for sugar in food products to impart sweetness, to reduce the number of
calories in products or products made for certain population with
dietary restrictions on sugar consumption.
Some sweeteners are
natural sugar substitutes such as Isomalt, Sorbitol, Xylitol, Glycerol,
etc., and some are artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame, Sucralose,
Saccharin, etc.
Food and drug authorities regulate usage of additives, preservatives and sweeteners in the baking industry globally.
Only an approved and permitted class of additives and preservatives can be used in the manufacturing process.
All additives and preservatives are classified and coded as per the international food safety guidelines.
Additives
and preservatives for long have been used in manufacturing bakery
products. Some of the natural additives and preservatives that have been
historically used are salt, alcohol, vinegar, etc.
Apart from
the traditionally used natural additives there some more recently
identified and developed forms of additives that are also being used in
the industry. They are easier to handle, store, readily available and
are very economical. This has attributed to their widespread use in the
industry.
Lecithin is a natural product that can be obtained from
eggs, soy, peanuts, corn, etc. It is used in baking as an emulsifier,
i.e. stabilising agent in the product.
It is available in the
liquid, powder or granular form, and is the best form of natural
stabiliser available to home bakers as well.
It helps in
combining all ingredients well and aids in the formation of stable cake
and cookie batter. Using lecithin, especially in bread-making, gives the
product a better texture, flavour and quality to the finished product.
Acids act as preservatives and antioxidants. Some commonly used acids are tartaric acid, citric acid, lactic acid, etc.
Tartaric acid is obtained from plant sources, and citric acid is commercially produced using glucose and hydrolysed corn starch.
Lactic
acid, found in milk and milk products, is another natural additive and
preservative that is used in bakery and confectionery.
It helps
in increasing the shelf life of the product as it has antimicrobial
properties. It enhances flavor in savoury products and breads, also used
in making hard-boiled sugar candies and to prevent stickiness in them.
Lactic
acid and some sweeteners also act as humectants, i.e. they help in
retaining moisture in the product and prevent them from drying out
during storage.
Gluten is naturally present in wheat flour.
Commercial gluten is obtained by washing out starch from flour mixed
with water. Flour high in gluten is best suited for bread-making.
However,
due to geographical and various other factors, the flour obtained has a
lesser percentage of gluten or gluten development is weak in certain
qualities of flour.
Gluten is also an important ingredient in
making popular varieties of breads made these days, from flours that are
high in fibre, wholemeal breads, mixed grain breads, etc.
These
flours are not naturally high in gluten content. In such products,
dried gluten can be added to the flour to give a softer quality of
bread, and also to achieve strong gluten development during the bread
making process.
Dried gluten is now commercially available in powder form.
Bread
improvers, dough conditioners, oxidising agents are widely used by
large scale manufacturers to improve the bread texture, impart stronger
flavour, shorten fermentation duration, reduce use of fat in breads,
uniform rise while baking and give consistent results each time even
with varying qualities of flour batches.
Some bread improvers contain natural ingredients such as soy flour, starch, corn starch, etc.
Apart from natural additives, there are many chemically-derived varieties available to manufacturers.
Commonly-used
chemical agents in bread-making are potassium bromate, chlorine,
ascorbic acid, etc. These agents help in bleaching flour to make flour
whiter, providing finer grain texture, high-rising loaves and stability
during the baking process.
Potassium bromate has been banned
from certain countries due to health hazards, and there are bromate-free
improvers also available in the markets today.
Caramel is
generally used for colouring of food products for more intense brown
colour. This caramel is not the same as the caramel obtained by heating
sugar at high levels, which is also added to food for flavour. The
caramel used for colouring in commercially-manufactured food products is
a chemical additive.
Some chemical preservatives used in the
baking industry are acetic acid and propionic acid. They are used to
inhibit the growth of fungi and other micro-organisms in the products
and to retain freshness for longer periods of time.
Some of the
more-recently evolved additives are in gel forms, such as cake improvers
or cake gels. These gels are added to cake batter, used to obtain moist
cakes that are well-risen, have a spongy texture, softer fine crumbs
and no alteration in the taste.
These gels also help the shelf
life of cakes. Some gels are also used as glazing agents to prevent
moisture loss, protect products from pressure and heat and improve
appearance of food products.
Until recently, the availability of
majority additives were restricted only to commercial food producers by
large-scale suppliers.
Renewed interest in baking at home and
the emergence of numerous small-scale bakers in the industry, has led to
some of these additives now being made readily available in economical
packaging.
Consumers are can now get professional looking baked
good using these at home. There are many international brands of
suppliers that have identified the potential of the Indian market, and
have entered, looking to further exploit the growing demand.
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