New enzyme preparations extend bread shelf life • Functional flours offer the baking industry added value • Tailor-made solutions for different freshness attributes

Flour treatment specialist MC Mühlenchemie has boosted its Alphamalt Fresh product line with two new versions that significantly extend the freshness of industrially produced bread. The new Alphamalt Fresh & Soft and Fresh & Spring products offer different approaches to meeting the individual desires of bakeries and consumers for freshness attributes like crumb moisture, softness, and elasticity. Depending on requirements, mills can offer bakeries added value in the form of flour with functional properties that help products stay fresh longer. This reduces food waste and makes production more economical and sustainable.

Rising quality expectations of retailers and consumers

Consumers want fresh foods; manufacturers and retailers must meet this demand with long shelf life and consistent quality. In baked goods, this quality is defined by characteristics like appearance, flavour, aroma, crispiness and crust. The elasticity and softness of the crumb are further key quality criteria. Baked good structure changes over time, becoming progressively harder during transportation and storage. The main reason for this is the retrogradation or partial recrystallization of the amylopectin component of the starch gelatinized during baking.

Enzymes as the key to fresh keeping

The products in the Alphamalt Fresh range prevent recrystallization of the starch gelatinized during baking, keeping the crumb soft longer.  While the smaller amylose molecules move from the starch grains into their surroundings and recrystallize after baking, the larger amylopectin molecules remain in their non-crystalline form at first. Favoured by low temperatures, the amylopectin crystallizes as the helical components of the molecule “coil” back up. The hardening of the crumb results from the firm binding of water by the crystallizing amylopectin.

The Alphamalt Fresh series enzyme preparations reduce the amount of amylopectin that can crystallize. The resulting short-chain dextrins also interact with the remaining helical structures of the starch to prevent them from crystallizing. If Alphamalt Fresh is combined with emulsifiers or enzymes that improve the bread volume and the structure attainable immediately after baking, freshness preservation can be extended to up to three weeks.

Varied freshness attribute requirements

Freshness preservation can mean different things to different bakers and consumers, but all expectations involve the crumb properties. For some, freshness has to do with crumb softness or elasticity, for others it involves a certain crumb moisture.

With this Alphamalt Fresh line extension, MC Mühlenchemie supplies solutions for the individual needs of bakers and consumers. Alphamalt Fresh & Soft combines crumb softness and moistness to give a moist chewing sensation that makes a fresh impression even days after baking. Alphamalt Fresh & Spring primarily enhances the elasticity of the crumb, providing a very good mouthfeel combined with crumb stability. “Hard on the outside, soft on the inside” is how consumers would describe these advantages.

Both products are suitable for yeast-raised baked goods such as sandwich bread, hamburger buns and the like, and can be dosed according to the desired level of freshness preservation. MC Mühlenchemie also offers enzyme-based solutions for extended fresh-keeping for special applications like tortillas, flatbread and cake flours.

 

New unique flour treatment toolbox for the global milling industry

We have developed a new standardised modular toolbox with eight innovative solutions for flour treatment and pasta production. Our 100 years of expertise in flour treatment have been incorporated into this latest generation of enzyme solutions.

To mark our 100th anniversary, we want to give something back to our customers and partners around the world. With our newly developed modular improver kit, we enable you to use exactly the solutions that suit your individual needs.

The components of our unique modular system are eight products that guarantee high quality flour. It offers solutions for pasta and baking applications that can be used worldwide.

Six baking solutions

The six baking solutions comprise five enzymes with specific activity, which can be combined as required, as well as a complete solution that combines various enzyme activities.

More information about our enzymes and baking solutions

Two pasta solutions

The collection offers an enzyme and a colour compound for pasta production.

Find out more about our pasta applications

All new products are characterised by a wide range of applications, improved functionalities and cost efficiency. They enable you to respond individually and precisely to the various challenges of global milling, such as fluctuating harvesting conditions and application-specific requirements. In line with MC’s anniversary, all new products bear the “100” label, which symbolises a century of innovation and market leadership in the industry.

For more information on the individual products and how they can be used to your advantage, we will be happy to advise you.

Contact us

Serving the “white gold” for one hundred years. Understanding, treating and improving flour for 100 years. In 2023, we celebrate our 100th birthday with our global subsidiaries and the millers of the world. An outstanding anniversary!

With a modern and powerful corporate design and our re-aligned identity, we are giving expression to our self-image and moving into the future with motivation and passion. For better flour and sustainably better and safer nutrition and food chains.

Great research: Innovation Award “Composite Flour” announced.
On the occasion of our 100th anniversary, we have established an award for research into Composite Flour. With this innovation award we honor solutions around the production and processing of non-wheat flours and their blends with wheat flour – especially those that use local raw materials.

What it is about

The global wheat market is under increasing pressure. Fluctuating availability and sharply rising wheat prices are endangering global food supplies. In order for flour as a food staple to continue to be available in good quality at prices everyone can afford, going forward it will be more important than ever to be independent of wheat and global markets. One way to achieve this is to use alternatives to wheat flour.

For years, we have developed ways to partially or completely replace wheat flour with non-wheat flours. However, in other areas of wheat substitution there is a lack of background knowledge. In particular, questions remain open with regard to the cultivation and processing of various wheat alternatives, such as:

Who can apply

Our Innovation Award “Composite Flour” honors innovative work on these challenges and on solutions for the milling, baking and pasta industries. The award is for completed scientific studies and practice-focused projects from 2019 to 2022.

All interested parties, institutes and research companies are invited to submit single-page summaries of their studies by 31 Jan. 2023 to innovationaward@muehlenchemie.com

The Prize

The total prize amount is €10,000. Awardees will receive €5,000, €3,000 and €2,000 for first, second and third place.


An international expert jury will review all submissions, select the most promising ones, and then request detailed descriptions of the shortlisted studies.
The award ceremony will be held in July 2023.

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