Baking & Snack - May 2021 - 56

ENZYMES

Left: Enzymes offer
bakers a wealth of
label-friendly functionality from dough
strengthening to shelflife extension.
Cain Foods

Right: To avoid overdosing, formulators
should not max out usage levels of enzymes.
Lallemand Baking

result in product that is overly gummy or keyholing, " said
Jesse Stinson, director, RD&A, Corbion. " An overdosage
of a strengthening enzyme solution could cause loss of loaf
volume or changes in dough handling properties. "
Kerry Taste & Nutrition uses its application dose effect
analytical data to ensure its enzyme dosages are correct.
Otherwise real issues of quality can occur.
" The use of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) degrading
enzymes ensures optimal dough handling and processability without acting on the starch content, " said Richie Pigott,
vice president of business development, North American
enzymes, Kerry. " However, NSP degrading enzyme overdosage can make dough very sticky, leading to higher water
absorption and more waste. "
Typically, overdosing is easy to avoid as enzymes have
recommended usage levels. Working within these ranges,
bakers can find the optimal amount of enzymes for their
formulation.
" Once you have optimized the usage level of the enzyme,
you may not benefit from adding higher levels; sometimes
less is more, " said Ashley Beech, senior application technologist, bakery enzymes, IFF Nutrition & Biosciences. " Many
enzymes have a point of no return once you have reached
overdose levels and substrate is no longer available. "
John Hinds, innovation center manager, Cain Foods,
agreed that a little can go a long way. When working with
enzymes, he suggested bakers make small incremental adjustments to avoid overdosing.
Bakers have a plethora of enzymes to improve multiple
sides of their formulation all at once: anti-staling, gluten
replacement, emulsification and oxidation, for example.
However, blending enzymes to take full advantage of this
wide range of functionality is where overdosing becomes a
real issue, and the window for error shrinks.
" Depending on the company producing an enzyme
blend, each batch could contain the same or similar enzymes. So if they are all used in the same product, various
enzymes could be overdosed, " Mr. Boutte explained. " The
bottom line is that each enzyme can only be used once at
an optimal dose. "
To prevent overdosing while creating a synergistic enzyme solution, John Sawicki, director of R&D and quality
control for BreadPartners, suggested bakers avoid maxing
out the usage levels of the enzymes being used. Really lean

56 Baking & Snack May 2021 / www.bakingbusiness.com

into that less-is-more mentality while combining them
with enzymes less sensitive to overdosing.
" When using enzymes that are capable of being overdosed, it is important to use them at usage levels, not at
their maximum level, but at a lower level in combination
with other enzymes that they may have synergies with, " he
said. " Finding the right combination of old versus new with
lower costs versus high will minimize overdosing problems
and still be affordable. "
When developing enzyme blends, it's also critical to remember that some enzymes are more sensitive to overdosing than others, Mr. Boutte pointed out.
" Interestingly, fungal alpha amylase is practically immune to overdosing and can be added at 20 times the normal level and still make saleable bread, " he said. " However,
certain phospholipases or bacterial alpha amylase may
overdose with just 30% overage. And while not completely
understood, certain flours are much more susceptible to
overdosing than others. Ultimately, it's important to try to
develop an understanding of what you are purchasing, how
it works and both optimal and upper limits. "
It's not just understanding the ingredients in an enzyme
batch or the optimal usage rate. Processing conditions, like
heat, are what deactivate enzymes. If the dough is spending
too much time resting on the floor, that's additional time
the enzyme has to work.
" Extra hours of the enzyme working on the dough gives
the same effect as using too much enzyme; it's an overdose
based on the processing conditions, " said Christina Barsa,
certified food scientist and technical sales representative,
Enzyme Development Corp. " Formulators need to mimic
the production procedure as closely as possible and realize
that they will probably need to cut back on their enzyme
dosage when they scale up. "

A synergistic approach
To get the most out of enzymes' functionality, bakers would
benefit from looking at how an enzyme blend works together as well as within the formulation.
" By taking a single ingredient approach versus a holistic
approach, formulas may not be optimized to their full potential, " Ms. Beech explained.
A holistic approach allows bakers to use a custom enzyme solution that can do more than just provide label-

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