Danisco unveils G+ anti-staling enzyme
The Danish company has offered an enzyme product for use in buns and rolls, called PowerFresh Bun, for a number of years, based on its G4 enzyme technology.
It is now ushering in a new generation of enzymes, called G+, which allows it to take more targeted approach to different kinds of bread. The G+ is used in its two new products, PowerFresh Bread, for use in American-style toast bread; and PowerFresh Special with G+, for use in specialty breads like brioche, panettone and ovals.
Aart Mateboer, business unit director for Danisco Food Enzymes, told FoodNavigator.com that the G+ has taken about 3 years to develop. It is said to mark a change in the one-enzyme-fits-all approach to anti-staling bread market.
Mateboer said the company will expand the products it is used in in the future. “We will also work with major bakeries to target their individual needs,” he said.
The new enzymes have been tested by an external consultant called 21 Sensory Inc on their freshness attributes. The testers found breads using the enzyme to soft when squeezed after 10 days – but the loaves still kept their shape when stacked on supermarket shelves. Only small quality changes were observed between 4 and 10 days.
They are being launched at the International Baking Industry Expo in Las Vegas next month.
The company is expecting them to prove popular on the US market, which already accounts for some 70 per cent of the anti-staling enzyme market.
They will be available for use globally, however, in powder and easy-to-dose tablet form. Commercial-scale production trials have already been carried out.
Mateboer said they will meet the requirement of the new European enzyme regulation, under which all enzymes will have to go through an approvals process before being launched on the market. That regulation is not yet in force, however, and when it is all previously marketed enzymes will have to go through an assessment.
In the meantime Mateboer said: “We can start selling in Europe tomorrow, with the exception of Denmark and France.”
Denmark and France are the only two EU member states with existing pre-market approval processes for enzymes as processing aids. He said that the G+ enzyme is currently “going through those”.
A new report from Leatherhead Food Research on key players in food additives valued the global enzyme market at US$900m. Bakery and brewing enzymes are said to be leading the innovation push, and demand from Asia Pacific is significant.
