Quality Improvement Project for Shelf Stable Bakery Products

摘要

Bakery food products are mostly cellular solid food systems which consist mainly of gluten and starch fractions. In bakery food products, the most important quality related problem is staling, which starts right after baking procedure. Staling of food products causes a series of reactions which affect the sensory and physical properties. Retrogradation of starch is the primary mechanism that influences textural properties of cakes. This project created a new Devil's fudge cake formulation by use of gum, modified starch and enzyme technology. Cake samples prepared by combinations of gums, bacterial amylases and pregelatinized starch were found to slow down the starch retrogradation rate. Moisture content, water activity, texture, and X-ray diffractometry graphs were evaluated. The staling rate was found to be accelerated by the fluctuations in temperature from high to low temperatures. Modified starches, enzymes and gums decreased the rate of staling and improved product quality. All Rutgers formulated cakes were found to have 25% less toughness and hardness values as compared to the current product. Besides cakes, we also studied waffles as a second product. We showed that the staling rate for waffles is faster than for cakes. The most effective ingredient in controlling the staling rate was the bacterial enzyme. Enzyme containing formulation decreased the toughness values of waffle samples by 50% as compared to control samples.