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Adough conditioner (also called aflour treatment agent,improving agent orbread improver) is any ingredient,food additive, or chemical added tobreaddough to strengthen its texture or otherwise improve it in some way. Dough conditioners may includeenzymes, yeast nutrients, mineral salts,oxidants andreductants,bleaching agents andemulsifiers.[1] Flour treatment agents are used to increase the speed of dough rising and to improve the strength and workability of the dough.
Examples of dough conditioners includeascorbic acid, distilledmonoglycerides, citrate ester of monoglycerides,diglycerides,ammonium chloride,enzymes,[2] diacetyl tartaric acid ester of monoglycerides orDATEM,potassium bromate,potassium iodate, calcium salts such ascalcium iodate,L-cystine,[3] L-cysteine HCl,[4]glycerol monostearate,azodicarbonamide,[5][6] sodium stearoyl lactylate, sucrose palmitate or other sucrose esters, polyoxyethylene sorbitan monostearate orpolysorbate, soybeanlecithin, and soybean lecithin enriched with lysophospholipids.[7]
Less processed dough conditioners include sprouted- or malted-grain flours, soy, milk, wheat germ, eggs, potatoes, gluten, yeast, and extra kneading. Malted,diastatic flours are not typically added by manufacturers towhole-wheat flours.
In the early 1900s it was discovered that a mixture containingcalcium chloride,ammonium sulfate, andpotassium bromate halved the amount of yeast needed to raise dough. These mixtures were generally known as mineral yeast foods or yeast nutrient salts. After they became popular among bakers, one patented yeast food was analyzed by Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station chief chemist J. P. Street, who published in 1917 that it contained, "calcium sulphate, 25;ammonium chlorid, 9.7;potassium bromate, 0.3;sodium chlorid, 25; patentwheat flour, 40."[8] They contain water conditioners, yeast conditioners, and dough conditioners.[9]
Yeast requires water, carbon sources such as starch and simple carbohydrates,nitrogen (preferably as ammonium as it cannot assimilatenitrate), sulfur, phosphorus (often as inorganic phosphate), and minute quantities of vitamins and elemental mineral ions.[10]Ammonium chloride,ammonium sulfate, orammonium phosphate may be used assources of nitrogen.[11][12][13][1]Phosphoric acid, anacidulant normally used incola, is used as a yeast stimulant.[14] Calcium iodate,[15] an oxidant,[16] is a U.S. Food and Drug Administrationgenerally recognized as safe source of calcium and iodide.[17][18]
Oxidizing agents are added to flour to help withgluten development. They may or may not also act as bleaching agents. Originally flour was naturally aged through exposure to the atmosphere. Oxidizing agents primarily affect sulfur-containing amino acids, ultimately helping to formdisulfide bridges between the gluten molecules. The addition of these agents to flour will create a stronger dough.[19]Dehydroascorbic acid andpotassium bromate are oxidants, acting on sulfhydryl groups and disulfide bonds in wheat dough, in particular oxidizingglutathione. Potassium bromate acts more directly or with fewer chemical conversion steps than ascorbic acid. Glutathione increases wheat dough's extensibility, or relaxes it, while oxidizing a dough's glutathione increases elasticity. Common oxidizing agents are:
Reducing agents help to weaken the flour by breaking the protein network. This will help with various aspects of handling a strong dough. The benefits of adding these agents are reduced mixing time, reduced dough elasticity, reduced proofing time, and improved machinability.[19]Cysteine andbisulfite[note 1] are reducing agents which relax wheat dough.[22][23] Adding minute amounts of oxidants or reducing agents alter the post-mix handling characteristics of dough.[24][25][26][27] Common reducing agents are:
Lecithins, monoglycerides, diglycerides, and DATEM are consideredemulsifiers. They disperse fat more evenly throughout the dough, helping it to trap more of thecarbon dioxide bubbles produced by yeast.[29] Lecithin added at a rate of 0.25-to-0.6% of the flour weight acts as a dough conditioner.[30] Liquid soy lecithin may be used at a rate of up to 2% of the fat weight. It may be preferred to base the percentage on fat because lecithin dissolves well in warm fats.[31] Based on total weight, egg yolk contains about 9% lecithin.[32] Monoglycerides and diglycerides replaceegg lecithin in baked goods.[33] Emulsifiers haveantistaling effects and tend to produce a finer grain, softer crumb, and with longer proof times, increased baked volumes.[34][7]
Variousenzymes are also used to improve processing characteristics. Yeast cells naturally produce digestive enzymes, but additional enzymes are often added:
Other additives may be used as yeast nutrients or as a source of enzymes:
Azodicarbonamide is frequently added to bread flour at the mill [in one-third of the cases in the survey done by Kulp (1981) referred to earlier]. Potassium bromate was added to 19% of the flours, and ascorbic acid to one (out of 63). This is done as a convenience for the bakery customer, who specifies the level of addition to obtain the best performance on the production line without having to add more oxidant in the plant. In the United States the maximum level of addition to flour is 45 ppm for ADA, 75 ppm forpotassium bromate, and 200 ppm for ascorbic acid, although more typical dosing levels are 10 ppm, 25 ppm, and 50 ppm, respectively. Certain other materials may be also added at the mill, notably a-amylase (as malted barley powder or fungal enzyme) and vitamin enrichment to meet FDA standards for enriched flour....
Table 1
Conditioners are added to store-bought bread to maintain freshness and prolong shelf life. In the 1960s, iodate bread conditioners were widely used. London et al. (13), in 1965, reported that bread was a source of large quantities of dietary iodine, with iodine content as high as 150 μg per slice. This was considered to be a contributing cause to the decreasing radioactive iodine uptake in the U.S. during the 1960s (14, 15). Because of the concerns about high bread iodine content, commercial bakeries now less commonly use iodate bread conditioners. The decreasing use of iodate bread conditioners is thought to have contributed to the reduction in dietary iodine levels between the 1970s and the early 1990s.
CaCl2
Protein complexing: The ability to complex with the protein in flour (gluten) provides the basis for a good dough conditioner. Lecithin can function as a natural bread-dough conditioner at addition levels generally between 0.25 and 0.6% based on the weight of the flour.
Egg yolk has the approximate composition (by weight) of 50% water, 16% protein, 9% lecithin, 23% other fat, 0.3% carbohydrate and 1.7% minerals.
The cake also has emulsifying chemicals called monoglycerides and diglycerides, which replace most of the eggs that would normally be used in a baked good.
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