High-quality bread improver formulations rely on dough strengthening, and Novozymes’ groundbreaking Lipopan F enzyme solution has proven to be a cost-effective dough strengthener, especially in Turkish-style and French-style bread and overnight fermented bread.
“Lipopan Xtra complements Lipopan F by offering even greater returns on the cost of dough strengthening in straight-dough and Chorleywood processes. Together they represent the most cost-efficient dough strengtheners for a broad range of baked products,” says Anett Lund-Nielsen Colstrup, launch manager at Novozymes.
Innovative enzymes as a substitute for emulsifiers
Chemical emulsifiers such as DATEM and SSL/CSL are often added to bread improvers to improve overall bread quality and prevent the dough from collapsing during production.
Lipopan is a lipase that works on the lipids naturally present in the wheat flour and modifies non-polar as well as polar lipids such as lecithin. These modified polar lipids increase the stability of gas cells in the dough, improving dough stability.
“Bread improver manufacturers can use Lipopan to reduce the level of emulsifier used by 50-100%. One kilo of Lipopan can replace anywhere from 100 to 1,000 kilos of chemical emulsifier and have the same effect,” says Anett Lund-Nielsen Colstrup.
Reducing the amount of emulsifier also translates into savings in terms of storage, transport and handling costs.
The Lipopan Xtra effect
Lipopan Xtra is most appealing for bread improver formulations for straight-dough and Chorleywood processes and it is the most cost-competitive lipase in the market for its applications.
“Lipopan Xtra is ideal for these types of baking procedure and works nicely at low dosages. It is a robust enzyme solution and is less sensitive to variation in flour quality,” says Luise Erlandsen, science manager at Novozymes. “Also, Lipopan Xtra is soluble in water-based liquid bread improvers, which is a problem for DATEM. And it is also highly stable in liquid bread improvers, thus increasing their storage life.”
Lipopan Xtra is also more suitable for butter-containing recipes because other lipases cause malodorous fatty acids to be released.
“Butter-containing recipes also benefit from Lipopan Xtra,” says Luise Erlandsen. “You can’t use it in croissant dough with lots and lots of butter, but for regular straight-dough recipes with low levels of butter, Lipopan Xtra is less prone to cause off-flavour than other available lipases.”
Dough strengthening at lower cost
Both Lipopan products offer good dough stability, improved loaf volume and an improved bread crumb structure.
“Bread improver manufacturers using Lipopan get loaves with very good volume and crumb appearance. This enzyme solution’s broad substrate specificity differentiates it from the other lipases in the market,” adds Luise Erlandsen.
Lipases also reduce, and in some cases eliminate, the acidic off-flavour associated with some emulsifiers.
Besides improved cost efficiency, there are other advantages of reducing the amount of emulsifiers, including the elimination of anti-caking agents. In hot and humid climates, emulsifiers based on lipids can give caking and lumping problems in bread improvers. Traditionally, chemical anti-caking agents are used to counteract this problem, but with Lipopan the need is reduced or even eliminated. Lipopan is a free-flowing granulate that doesn’t cake, which is a desirable trait.
Lipopan forever
Lipopan Xtra was developed to complement Lipopan F, the first enzymatic dough strengthener, launched in 2001.
“When it was launched, Lipopan F was revolutionary and people in the industry didn’t think small amounts of an enzyme would replace chemical emulsifiers. Lipopan F proved that it could be done. It has been a great success and now we’re expanding our market reach to accommodate straight-dough and Chorleywood processes with Lipopan Xtra,” says Andrew Fordyce, marketing director for Cereal Food at Novozymes.
“Lipopan Xtra is the next and natural evolutionary step in lipases for us. It opens up additional market segments and gives value to bread improver manufacturers.
“We are working on developing lipases tailored for all bread-making processes that work synergistically with other ingredients in the dough. We want bread improver manufacturers around the world to use our lipase solutions to improve dough strengthening cost efficiency and at the same time improve the quality of their final product. Ultimately, our goal is to completely replace emulsifiers with Novozymes’ lipases.”