The use of substitute bakery ingredients and measuring the effect of texture

There is a growing interest in the bakery industry involving the improvement of the nutritional profile of bakery products. One of the most common ways to improve this nutritional profile is by the use of substitute ingredients, including replacements for carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

Carbohydrates can have a negative influence on the metabolism, and their excess consumption can lead to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay. However, they are responsible for the structure and texture of many bakery products.

The lipid profile of a bakery product might be altered by substitution. For example, saturated fats have a large impact on the incidence of cardiovascular disease. However, there are useful alternatives to traditional oils and butters with large amounts of omega 3 and other components that can mitigate these problems.

By-Products in the Baking and Snack Industries and their Effect on Texture

Food waste and by-products are generated in large quantities in the food industry. 38% of this waste occurs during food processing. It arises from a variety of sources including animal-derived (e.g. hooves, feathers, blood and whey) and vegetable-derived (e.g. peelings, seeds, starch and juice). The disposal of this waste is of detriment to the environment due to its poor biological stability, significant nutritional value and high concentration of organic compounds. The large amount of food waste and its microbial decomposition may cause adverse effect on the environment and human health. At a large cost for waste treatment, it is an additional financial burden on the food manufacturer. Food manufacturing industries have low profit margins and the additional impact of the processing cost of waste is a great disadvantage to the food industry along with the agricultural sector and the country’s economy.

Texture Analysis in Research: 3D Printing in the Bakery Industry

3D printing has made a large impact in many sectors, but its entry into the food industry has not been a simple journey. The first difficulty to overcome is the range of food products that have until now been printable. Additionally, the properties of finished 3D printed products require a large amount of research (texture and rheology as well as colours and general appearance) and development along with the printing conditions to achieve them (such as temperature, speeds and raw materials).

Texture Analysis in Research: Incorporation of Insects as Ingredients in the Bakery Industry

Back in December 2019, Roberts Bakery in Norwich were the first UK bakery to launch a loaf of bread containing cricket flour. The uptake from other bakeries has been slow in the UK; customers will take some convincing before they overcome their trepidation to eat insects. However, it is likely that insects will become a regular part of our diets in years to come.

Insects such as crickets provide a protein source with a high feed-conversion efficiency rate (an animal's capacity to convert feed into increased body mass). They also require much less water than traditional protein sources such as poultry or cattle. Health benefits of insect consumption include their high antioxidant power and chitinous fibre content, as well as the upside of a higher protein content in whichever food they are added to. The challenge lies in introducing insect protein into the Western diet. This has to begin with ingredient replacement in existing foods, one example of which is bakery products, as these act to familiarise consumers with insect-based food.

The Volscan Profiler in Bakery Research

Loaf volume is of paramount importance to bread quality evaluation. It is a vital aspect of the consumer’s perception of value as in bread and other leavened goods, higher volume for a given weight is invariably associated with a more aerated crumb and superior texture.

For a baker or bread manufacturer, each batch of flour has to be evaluated by test baking to ensure that bread is made to a uniformly high quality. One component of this quality control is measurement of the volume of the bread, which can give information relating to the density of the bread crumb and the strength of the gluten in the flour. This volume information can then be used to modify the dough mix used in bread production to produce bread of the appropriate quality. This procedure is important, not only for the inherent qualities of the bread, but to ensure that the selected dough-piece weight produces a loaf of the correct size for the standard tins used in the baking process.

How Texture Analysis is progressing the development of even better gluten-free products

The global demand for gluten-free products is expanding and continues to be a significant technological challenge for the bakery industries. One of the principle challenges is producing gluten-free baked goods and pasta with similar textural quality to the gluten-loaded counterparts.

The market demand of gluten-free (GF) baked goods and pasta is expanding. Despite the health halo associated with GF food category, commercially available GF cereal-based foods are often characterised by lower nutritional quality than their gluten-containing counterparts, having lower dietary fibre, protein and resistant starch (RS) contents, along with enhanced starch digestion rates and extents.

Effect of Storage on Texture: Baked Goods

Bread

When bread goes stale, the major factor that puts a consumer off is the change in texture, although flavour changes also occur. 

 

The textural changes during bread staling, and the processes that drive them, have been outlined in detail in a previous series of blog posts. The exact process of staling is not well understood despite a large amount of research into this topic.

Staling begins as soon as baking ends, and it becomes detectable to the consumer as early as a few hours after baking. Bread staling presents itself as reduced springiness and reduced crumb softness, both of which can be measured using a firmness measurement with a cylinder probe on a TA.XTplus Texture Analyser.

 

Additionally, the mouthfeel of both dryness and crumbliness increases, and the crust becomes tougher and less crisp. This change occurs due to moisture movement from the crumb to the crust, but changes to the contained starch molecules are also a major cause.

How Bakery Industry Leaders use Texture Analysis to get ahead of their competition

How Zeelandia measures the crustiness of bread rolls

By combining the Texture Analyser’s ‘V’ Squeeze test with simultaneous acoustic measurements, Zeelandia pioneered a new method to determine the crustiness of bakery products to obtain detailed objective analysis of crust breakage.

Henk Mulder, physical scientist at Zeelandia, commented, “Stable Micro Systems’ equipment is extremely accurate and versatile. Manual tests, and even our previous lab testing methods, didn’t give us enough detail to draw meaningful conclusions for our NPD or quality control purposes.

“The ‘V’ Squeeze test measures valuable parameters, but recording sound using the Acoustic Envelope Detector provides far more detailed results that can be used in new product development and for competitor analysis and QC purposes”.

Texture Analysis to Measure the Effects of Enzyme Addition on the Staling of Artisanal Bread: Part 3 – Texture Analysis Techniques

Texture Analysis techniques

Chemical tests are a major part of the research that can be performed to assess the extent of staling. These include the measurement of water activity, alkaline water retention capacity and the amount of soluble starch. However, it is the changes in physical properties listed above that are felt directly by the consumer when eating a loaf, and it is essential that these properties are monitored when developing new formulations. Texture Analysis can be used to test the properties of bread from dough to loaf.

Texture Analysis to Measure the Effects of Enzyme Addition on the Staling of Artisanal Bread: Part 2 - How can the Specifics of Staling Be Slowed or Prevented?

Improved packaging would seem the obvious choice to the home baker, keeping a loaf sealed in an air tight box to prevent moisture loss, but this is not the main solution. 

More importantly, enzymes, additives and emulsifiers can be added to counteract the mechanical property changes associated with staling. However, out of the three, the focus for artisan bread should be on enzymes.

It is not only the finished loaf that is affected by enzyme addition. The dough itself is also affected, and this can be useful for the manufacturer. Enzymes can be used to give a soft, elastic dough with low stickiness.

Texture Analysis to Measure the Effects of Enzyme Addition on the Staling of Artisanal Bread: Part 1 – Why does Staling Occur?

Bread is a common, low cost food that is eaten readily worldwide, associated with traditions in many countries. 

However, there has been a movement over the last decade or two towards products that are marketed as ‘clean label’, ‘plant-based’ or ‘artisan’, so supermarket shelves are seeing a shift from soft crust, cuboid loaves in coloured plastic bags to rustic looking crusty bread. Artisan bread is a term that has no absolute definition but refers to a style of short shelf-life bread that is usually offered unpackaged (in baskets) and consumed immediately after baking for maximum freshness.

Campden BRI defines cake 'fluffiness'

What does fluffy actually mean and how can you measure it in a cake? 

Researchers at Campden BRI along with members of a research club including Kenwood/Delonghi (the makers of the domestic planetary mixers) and Upfield/Unilever (the producers of cake margarines) have been taking a good look at what makes a good cake. From their own research, Kenwood/Delonghi and Upfield/Unilever explained that consumers recognise fluffiness as an important parameter for cake quality. Campden BRI then set about to attempt to define cake fluffiness and to derive an equation to measure it.

Texture Analysis in Research: Substitution and Supplementation in Bakery Products

In the bakery industry, formulations continue to be tested that replace an ingredient (such as gluten) or supplement (e.g. soybean or soy protein) to enhance a product. 

The following are recent publications highlighting the use of a texture analyser to measure the effects of such formulation change.

Scientists from Nanjing University of Finance and Economics have been researching the effects of whey and soy protein addition on the rheological properties of wheat dough. 

Since it is known that the gluten network is responsible for viscoelastic properties in wheat dough and for dough structure strength and gas retention, most studies reported that enrichment of

Global Baking Ingredients Market to Grow – get ready to perfect your texture

According to MarketReportsWorld.com, analysts forecast the Global Baking Ingredients Market to Grow at 5.68% CAGR during the Period 2017-2021.

With growth potential comes the need to secure the quality of your product to ensure that customers will continue to purchase your products over your competitors. If you don’t have any quantitative quality control in place already perhaps it’s time to understand how it would work for you.

Measuring the effects of reducing salt in bread

Bread always contains a certain amount of salt. However, to keep up with recent headlines advising us against excessive salt consumption and its associated health risks, many bread manufacturers are lowering the salt content in their products.

Salt affects dough texture, making it stronger and less sticky. Reducing salt can play havoc with the production line, but the Warburtons Dough Stickiness System provides a quick and easy test for stickiness of a standard 0.5kg or 1kg piece of dough. It features a sample testing box into which dough samples can be placed quickly and with minimum exposure of the cut surface to the atmosphere.

The Texture Analysis of Pizza

Are you interested in the texture of pizza? 

Clearly, the optimum extensibility of the dough and the desirable 'stretch' of the cheese are essential aspects of creating a great result for the consumer. The meat texture must also be suitable for this particular application.

But for quantity production there are also important checks that need to be made to ensure trouble-free processing, such as the ease of grating of the cheese and assessment of consistency of the pizza sauce.

Formulating the Perfect ‘Free-From’ Cake

Baking a cake from scratch at home for a family member’s birthday celebration is one thing; baking a cake for sale in a grocery store is another. 

As long as you use the correct ingredients and follow the recipe, the cake you bake at home is pretty much guaranteed to be moist and delicious. 

However, cake products that are produced for sale in grocery stores, convenience stores, and vending machines have to survive the rigours of industrial processing and packaging, shipping, and shelf life. Some are packaged and sold as ready-to-eat products, while others are baked and frozen. 

Texture Analysis in Action: the Dobrascycyk-Roberts Dough Inflation System

Most dough rheological measurements are performed at rates and conditions very different from those experienced during baking. 

Conventional oscillation shear rheological tests usually operate at small strains of up to 1%, while strain in gas cell expansion during proof can be several hundred percent. Furthermore, most rheological tests are carried out in shear, whereas most large strain deformations in dough (i.e. sheeting, proofing, and baking) are extensional in nature. 

The deformation around an expanding gas cell during proof is biaxial extension – deformation in the cell wall material surrounding an expanding gas bubble. Therefore, any rheological tests on dough that seek to predict baking performance should be carried out under conditions close to baking expansion.

Bakery Product Texture Measurement and Analysis

Revenue of the global bakery goods manufacturing industry has risen modestly over the past five years to around $408bn, despite having faced numerous challenges. 

However, demand for bakery products has stagnated in the mature markets of Western Europe and North America, causing manufacturers to seek opportunities in high-growth regions; in coming years, the industry is anticipated to grow more aggressively, supported by the growth of emerging markets.

The industry is in the mature stage of its life cycle. One characteristic of a mature industry is that it is expected to expand more slowly than global GDP. In the 10 years to 2020, industry value added (IVA), which measures an industry's contribution to the global economy, is projected to rise at an average annual rate of 2.6%, while over the same 10-year period world GDP is forecast to rise at an annualised rate of 3.4%. 

Texture Analysis in Action: the Warburtons Dough Stickiness System

The WARBURTONS DOUGH STICKINESS SYSTEM (A/WDS500 or A/WDS1000) features a sample testing box into which dough samples (of either 500g or 1Kg) can be placed quickly and with minimum exposure of the cut surface to the atmosphere.

A retaining plate is placed on top of the dough, applying slight compression to the sample. 

A narrow blade is driven through a slot in the retaining plate, to a defined distance.