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DuPont introduces alternative to ascorbic acid

16 Oct 2018

DuPont has introduced alternative to ascorbic acid for bakery products, claiming that DuPont Danisco GRINDAMYL SUREBake product range will enable bakers to produce cost effective, high-quality products.

The rising costs of ascorbic acid is prompting many baking industry manufacturers to search for an alternative dough strengthener, DuPont believes, noting that regulatory measures on environmental compliance and control in China have caused price hikes on ascorbic acid to continue. This, the company says, poses significant challenges for bakeries to produce high-quality products while maintaining good profit margin.

DuPont claims it is the only producer of hexose oxidase that is an alternative to ascorbic acid for bakery products. Unlike existing oxidative enzymes, the company says, the hexose oxidase technology present in the DuPont Danisco GRINDAMYL SUREBake product range can utilize many different sugar molecules as a substrate rather than just glucose alone. This, it says, helps improve the gluten network in dough systems through oxidization during mixing and fermentation, forming stronger bonds between the gluten, thereby giving a better production with a drier dough and thus no stickiness issue.

“The price of ascorbic acid is still rising,” said Lee Lai See, Food Enzyme Business Director for ASPAC. “As many ASEAN manufacturers buy ascorbic acid from China, an increasing number of customers are switching to a GRINDAMYL SUREBake product fully or partially to buffer their cost. By using GRINDAMYL SUREBake, bakers will be able to reduce their production cost while maintaining the dough processability with improved baking performance such as better water absorption that result in bigger bread volumes.”

According to DuPont, the GRINDAMYL SUREBake product range can be used in any process where flour requires an extra oxidative effect to create the desired properties and improvement of flours. The hexose oxidase is said to provide an excellent dough strengthening effect in the presence of oxygen and react with either mono- or disaccharides – unlike glucose oxidase, which is more dependent on flour variations and procedures. Hexose oxidase has a strong affinity for its substrates, which makes it a powerful biological oxidant.

The strengthener can, DSM says, be used in various procedures and applications where a highly stable system is required. With the GRINDAMYL SUREBake product range, millers and bakers can expect to gain benefits in increased tolerance towards variations in processing parameters; reduced dough stickiness; increased water absorption; supplementation of chemical oxidants (including ascorbic acid, ADA etc); improved shape and dimensions of the final bread product; and increased bread volume

DuPont says that manufacturers who have used a GRINDAMYL SUREBake product have seen improved bread quality in various applications. The strengthener can also be used in various procedures where a highly stable system is required, such as frozen dough.