Baking industry benefiting from enzyme innovation

KANSAS CITY — Reducing costs, improving sustainability practices and achieving cleaner labels are ambitions for many food companies. In many instances progress in all three categories may be achieved by turning to one ingredient category: enzymes.

“Specialty enzymes are mighty molecules that enable food producers to often make dramatic improvements in their production efficiency or final product,” said Liangji Xu, technical service manager for Amano Enzyme USA, Elgin, Ill. “They can increase yields with the same amount of raw material. They can improve clarity, increase sweetness and improve shelf life, without additional ingredients. They can also speed up processing time, saving energy.”

Food waste is a prominent sustainability problem, said Rossana Rodriguez, global marketing director for cultures and enzymes for IFF and based in Leiden, The Netherlands.

“For example, the bread gets hard, impossible to eat,” she said. “So (consumers) end up throwing it away.”

Enzymes can help to keep bread and other food products fresh for longer, thus reducing food waste. Bread also may be discarded at the bakery because of quality issues, another example of food waste.

A recent IFF innovation addresses food waste and other issues. IFF in 2021 launched Enovera 3001 in the United States and followed with a launch of Enovera 2000 in Europe in May of this year. The enzyme dough strengthener has been shown to replace vital wheat gluten, especially in challenging applications such as whole wheat bread. An enzyme technology, Enovera 2000 range performs equivalently or better than traditional emulsifiers and with a reduced dependence on aids used to compensate for inconsistencies, according to IFF.

AB Mauri North America, St. Louis, uses enzymes to improve the quality of baked foods and extend shelf life, said Rachel Cannon, innovation manager.

“By improving the quality of bakery products over time, consumers are able to enjoy products for longer, leading to less food waste,” she said. “Stale returns that were as high as 15% are now essentially zero.”

Enzymes may save on costs by emulating the properties of oil, eggs or gluten, which are ingredients known to rise in costs, said Abby Ceule, senior director, global functional systems for Corbion and based in Lenexa, Kan.

“Enzymes can contribute to sustainability in several ways,” she said. “By improving process efficiency and yield, they can help reduce resource use and waste. Enzymes that enhance shelf life help reduce the need for frequent deliveries, thereby lowering carbon emissions. Additionally, because enzymes can be produced through microbial fermentation, they represent a renewable and environmentally friendly alternative to chemically synthesized ingredients. In other words, enzymes are bio-based raw materials instead of fossil-based resources to produce specialty chemicals, supporting the transition to a circular economy.”

The right combination of enzymes has been shown to impart many of the characteristics attributed to chemical-sounding ingredients, said Mark Zielonka, natural R&D product specialist for BreadPartners, Inc., Cinnaminson, NJ.

“Crust/crumb softening, fermentation control, dough strengthening and machineability can now be accomplished enzymatically,” he said.

Shortages and price hikes recently have occurred for DATEM (diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides), SSL (sodium stearoyl lactylate) and vital wheat gluten, Mr. Zielonka said.

“Enzymes can now be employed to replace these key emulsifiers and dough strengtheners effectively,” he said. “These enzyme solutions are readily available and often much more cost-effective.”

Supply chain issues and shortages for emulsifiers such as SSL, DATEM, monoglycerides and lecithin have plagued the baking industry since COVID-19 began, said Keith Forneck, product development manager for Lallemand, Inc., Montreal.

“Each of these ingredients can easily be replaced by our enzyme-based solutions within our Essential ER and Essential STR portfolio of dough conditioners, typically at cost savings to the baker,” he said. “With respect to gluten, our Essential GR 1620WW is a gluten-enhancement technology that allows the baker to reduce usages by 20% to 50% at a significant cost advantage. Other opportunities for the industry include increasing crumb softness over time and extending shelf life with starch-modifying enzymes used in our Essential Soft portfolio.”

Adding enzymes may reduce the amount of gluten and sugar in applications, Ms. Carson said.

“Sugar, for example, can be reduced with enzymes that produce glucose, reducing sugar levels without compromising sweetness,” she said.

Amano Enzyme offers Glucose oxidase CAN “Amano” L (GO-ACNL), a natural enzyme for frozen dough stability and for preventing browning. It oxidizes a range of oligosaccharides to help strengthen the gluten network in the dough and to extend the shelf life of frozen dough. Umamizyme Pulse reduces the need for monosodium glutamate (MSG) and increases the perception of saltiness, which reduces the amount of salt needed in applications.

Cleaning up labels

Clean label may refer to many different traits, and enzymes may help in many cases.

“Clean label doesn’t have the same meaning (or definition) for everyone,” Ms. Rodriguez said.

Consumers may think of clean label as a product having fewer ingredients or having ingredients that they recognize, she said. Processing aids do not have to be included in ingredient lists. Enzymes are valuable processing aids although some companies choose to include them on the labels due to a positive consumer perception, she said.

Enzymes have been shown to replace oxidizers/reducing agents such as potassium bromate, ADA (azodicarbonamide), potassium iodate and L-cysteine, Mr. Zielonka said. The correct combination of enzymes may replace emulsifiers such as DATEM, SSL, CSL (calcium stearoyl lactylate) and mono- and diglycerides.

“A host of chemical-sounding ingredients can effectively be replaced with one word on their ingredient statement — ‘enzymes,’” he said.

Enzymes are proteins that take a substrate from the dough system like starch, fat, protein and fibers like arabinoxylans and then modify the substrate into something that has a function that improves baked foods processing or end product quality, said Ben Reusser, innovation center manager for Cain Food Ingredients, Dallas.

“Not only do enzymes help remove classic dough conditioners, they also can decrease the need for more expensive ingredients like gluten and eggs,” he said.

Different enzymes provide different benefits, said Yanling Yin, director, research and development for Corbion and based in Lenexa.

“For instance, enzymes like proteases and lipases can replace dough conditioners and emulsifiers while amylases and xylanases can substitute for chemical crumb softeners,” he said. “By using these naturally occurring proteins, bakers can eliminate chemical-sounding ingredients from their labels, making them more consumer-friendly.”

Mr. Reusser mentioned several other types of enzymes.

“Flour and eggs contain some polar lipids, which can be modified by phospholipases to give these lipids a hydrophilic head and lipophilic tail that is similar in shape and function to DATEM or SSL,” he said.

Lipases work on non-polar lipids by plucking fatty acids off a fat molecule, creating mono- and diglycerides from the fat in the system. Maltogenic amylase cleaves chains of amylopectin, which reduces overall starch retrogradation and lowers staling. Xylanase breaks chains of arabinoxylans present in flour, which releases water that may hydrate a different dough component and improve dough machinability and extensibility.

“Enzymes are effective in very small amounts, levels measured in parts per million,” Mr. Reusser said. “Enzymes are created through microbial fermentation unlike chemical processing. They also continue to perform as long as conditions such as pH, temperature, substrate availability are within range all the way until the enzyme is deactivated in the oven.”