Significance of Emulsifiers and Hydrocolloids in Bakery Industry

Nowadays, the use of additives has become a common practice in the baking industry. In this paper, the relevance two groups of these compounds (emulsifiers and hydrocolloids) for bakery applications are described. Emulsifiers are commonly added to commercial bakery products to improve bread quality and dough handling characteristics. Some frequently used emulsifiers are diacetyl tartaric acid esters of monodiglycerides and lecithin, which are known as dough improvers, and monoacylglycerols, which are applied as antistaling agents or crumb softeners. Food hydrocolloids are high-molecular weight hydrophylic biopolymers used as functional ingredients in the food industry. In the baked goods, hydrocolloids have been used for retarding the staling and for improving the quality of the fresh products. They help to minimize the negative effects of the freezing and frozen storage. An improvement in wheat dough stability during proofing can be obtained by the addition of sodium alginate, κcarrageenan and xanthan gum. Carboxymethylcellulose, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose and alginate can be added as anti-staling agents that retarded crumb firming.