Webinar Update: Managing short-term and long-term bread softness

Despite their everyday production constraints, bakeries have to strive to provide consumers with ever fresh, flavorful bread made with clean label ingredients, not just at the moment of purchase but also during storage at home.

Stale bread is the cause of a significant amount of bread returns and waste. Based on a survey conducted in 2012 exploring the type of food that is usually thrown away or wasted in German households, 47% of the participants reported Bread and Bakery products as being a type of foods that is usually wasted. When asked for the reasons behind the food waste, 28,1% of the participants evoked bad smell/taste. Based on a study conducted in 2011 at the German retail level, bakery items represented 11% of the loss of store’s revenue.

To stay fresh, bread needs a balanced dose of resilience and softness, without excessive gumminess. This can only be achieved by a careful selection of ingredients, including enzymes, emulsifiers and water binding ingredients. When mastering the art of utilizing in synergy these ingredients it is possible to obtain a great loaf of bread and that means less waste and happier planet.

Click here to learn more about this topic which was presented by Lallemand on Nov 19  at the webinar hosted by the German Grain Research Working Group Arbeitsgemeinschaft Getreideforschung (AGF).