Special Session Abstract

70-S

Xylanases for improved dough stability and bread quality
M. M. ENGELSEN (1)
(1) Novozymes A/S, Bagsvaerd, Denmark

Bread is a common food that is also associated with traditions in many different countries, and yet bread is closely related to biotechnology, which is synonymous with high technology—the word relating these two subjects to one another is enzymes. Enzymes have been used for decades in the bread industry, and the main enzyme classes used within baking are lipases for dough strengthening, hemicellulases (and especially xylanases) for dough conditioning, amylases for fresh keeping, oxidases for gluten strengthening and proteases for gluten weakening. But also “new” enzymes like asparaginase for removal of acrylamide in ex. biscuits and crackers have been developed and launched to the market. This presentation will mainly focus on use of xylanases for different applications. Xylanases are important enzymes in bread baking and are used to improve volume and give dough stability, to give finer crumb structure and to perform consistently in different wheat flours and applications. The true mechanism of xylanases in bread making has not yet been fully understood, but what is known is that xylanases degrade parts of the insoluble xylan to more soluble xylan, which improves the volume and crumb structure of wheat bread. However, too high levels of degradation can destroy the water-binding capacity of the wheat pentosans, which causes dough stickiness.

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