Bread Fermentation

Introduction
 History
 Bread being one of the earliest “processed”
food
 Manufacturing “industry” from 3,000 B.C.E. in
Egypt
 $16 billion industry in the US
 Wheat consumption ~100 Kg/person/year a
central ago, 50 Kg 1960s, 70 Kg 1980s, 2000
65 Kg
 European as high as 140 Kg/person/year
Bread Fermentation
 The fermentation occurs during bread
manufacturing is different from most other
food fermentations
 Purpose
 Fermentation end products
Wheat Chemistry and Milling
 Most common starting material
 Wheat
 Other cereal grains such as rye, barley, oats,
corn, etc.
 Gluten
 Protein complex gives bread structure and
elasticity and essential doe the leavening
process
 Poorly formed or absent in non-wheat flours
 Most commercial breads contain some wheat
Wheat Chemistry and Milling
 Flour composition critical for the fermentation
and physical structure of the dough and finished
bread
 Refined white flour used mostly in US, from
erdosperm portion
 Consists mainly protein and starch
 Small portion of heicellulose and lipid
 Protein
 8%-15% of wheat flour is protein
 High protein flours from hard wheat best for bread,
>11%
 Low-protein flours from soft wheat <9% for cakes,
cookies, pastries
Wheat Chemistry and Milling
 Protein
 Gliadin and glutenin the most important ones,
~85%
 When hydrated and mixed, form gluten, key
component of bread
 Remaining globulins and albumins, - and -
amylases
Wheat Chemistry and Milling
 Carbohydrate
 75% of the total weight
 Largely compose of starch
 Native starch granule insoluble
 Amylose and amylopectin within sphericcal granules
in rigid, semi-crystalline network
 Milling can damage a small percentage, increase
water absorption and enzyme exposure
 Some other carbohydrates
 A small amount of simple sugar, cellulose,
fiber (~1%)
Yeast Cultures
 S. cerevisiae, or bakers’ yeast
 Properties and characteristics for bread
making
 Gassing power
 Flavor development
 Stable to drying
 Stable during storage
 Easy to dispense
 Ethanol
 cryotolerant
Yeast Cultures
 Industrial production
 Scale up (Fig. 8-4)
 Growth medium
 Molasses or another inexpensive source of sugar and
various ammonium salts
 Other yeast nutrients
 Ammonium phosphate
 Magnesium sulfate
 Calcium sulfate, trace minerals (zinc, iron)
 Cell mass production required conditions
 O2 level
 Temp (30C)
 pH (4.0-5.0)
 continuous
 Yeast Metabolism During
Fermentation
Sugars Oxygen

Membranes
Glucose

CO2
Energy Unsaturated Fatty Acids Esters
Pyruvate Sterols
Ethanol
Higher
TCA Alcohols
Amino Acids
Acetaldehyde Cycle
VDK
Organic Acids

Sulfur
Amino Acids Volatiles
Kindly provided by Tom Pugh and David Ryder of Miller Brewing Company
Yeast cultures
 Commercially available
 Yeast cream
 Used directly, highly perishable
 Yeast cake
 Yeast cream through filtration press or vac. filter
 Refrigeration required, shelflife a few week
 Metabolically active, quick fermentation
 Dry active yeast
 Home bread making, small business operation
 Last 6 months or longer
 Require hydration, not as active
General Manufacturing Principles
fermentation
Weigh and mix dough Fermented
ingredients dough

fermentation
Portioned
and bake Cool
shaped

slice pack
Ingredients
 Key ingredients
 Wheat flour 60-70%, protein and carbohydrate
 Water 30-40%, solvent to hydrate flour and other
indredients
 Salt 1-2%, toughens the gluten, controls fermentation,
gives flavor
 Yeast 1-2%, leavening and flavor formation
 Optional ingredients
 Sugars 2-3%, fermentable, flavor, color
 Enzymes
 - and -amylases, supplement the low amount from
original flour
 Malt powder
 Proteolytic enzymes-softer dough, reducing mixing time
Ingredients
 Optional ingredients
 Fat-shortening
 Yeast nutrients
 Vitamins-flour enrichment with 4 B vitamins
 Gough improvers
 reducing agents, as cysterine, speed up mixing, weaken
dough
 Oxidating agents, as ascorbic acid, improve dough
 Biological preservatives
 Mold inhibitor: potassium acetate, sodium diacetate,
sodium propionate, calcium propionate
 Emulsifiers (dough conditioners)-mono- di-glycerides
 Gluten
 Added in certain cases to improve dough
 Crop years with low prot. cont., whole wheat and specialty
bread
Fermentation
 Lag phase usually
 Bakers’ yeast facultative metabolism (Fig.
8-6)
 Aerobic (via TCA cycle)
 Anaerobic glycolytic fermentation pathway
 Glucose inhibit TCA enzymes
 CO2
Sugar metabolism by bakers’ yeast
 Carbohydrate sources
 Starch
 Sugars (glucose and maltose)
 Transport and utilization
 Sequential use
 Regulation-glucose represses enzymes involved in
maltose transportation
 Maltose represses invertase expression
 Mutants available
 Sugar transport (Fig 8-7)
 Glycolysis
Fermentation
 End products
 CO2
 Other compounds
 Various acids and organic compound by yeasts
 By LAB
 Flavor and rheology of the dough
 Factors affecting growth
 Temp-hold at 25-28C instead of the optimal
growth temp 36-39C to minimize microbail
contamination, and maintain yeast activity
 Relative humidity 70-80%
 Glucose

Glucose 6-phosphate

Fructose 6-phosphate

Fructose 1, 6 phosphate
PGAL
DGAP Glyceraldehyde
3-phosphate
Dihydroxyacetone

PEP
Phosphenopyruvate

Pyruvate
CO2 Oxaloacetate
Lactic acid Acetyl CoA
TCA Cycle
+2 ATP
CO2
Respiration Chain
Ethanol
+2 ATP CO2
+36 ATP
Modern Bread Technology
 Straight dough process (Fig 8-9)
 Homemade, one-batch-at-a-time, not much by
the baking industry
 Sponge and dough process
 Mostly used, using partially concentrated
portion of dough-sponge to ferment, and then
mixing with the remaining ingredients
 Liquid sponge process
 Continuous bread-making, liquid sponge, save
labor and time, using thin, quality not as good
 Chorleywood Process
Microbiology of breadmaking
 Conventional breadmaking
 S. cerevisiae
 Bacteria
 Commercial baker’s yeast about 5% contaminating
lactic acid bacteria
 If LAB deliberated added, can lower pH to
below 4.0 and cause distinctive sour but
appealing flavor, better preserved
 Sour dough Bread
 Sour dough rye bread
 Most studied bacterial bread fermentation
 Popular in Europe
 Micro-organisms isolated from sour rye
 Bacteria: Lb. plantarum, Lb. brevis, Lb. casei, Lb.
fermenti, Lb. pastorianus, Lb. buchneri, Lb.
leichmannii, Lb. acidophilus, Lb. farciminis, Lb.
alimentarius, Lb. vrevis var. lindneri, Lb.
fermentum, Lb. fructivarans, Pediococcus
acidilactici
 LAB with very high amino acid requirement dominant
 Yeasts: Candida krusei, Saccharomyces cerevisiae,
Pichia saitoi, Torulopsis holmii
 Candida krusei dominant
 Sour Dough Bread
 The San Francisco sourdough French
bread
 Use start culture or “mother-sponge”
 Occurred in San Francisco, continuously used
for over 140 years
 Ecosystem consists of on species of yeast and
one species of bacteria
 Occurred in a ratio of 1:100
 Yeast- Candida milleri (or Torulopsis holmii)
 Bacteria- Lb. sanfrancisco
Formulations for San Francisco Sour Dough French Bread

Starter-sponge Bread dough

100 parts of previous sponge 20 parts starter-sponge

(40% of final mix)
100 parts flour (high-gluten)
46-52 parts watrer
Starting pH 4.4-4.5
Final pH 3.8-3.9
(11% of final mix)
100 parts flour (regular patent)
60 parts water
2 parts salt
Starting pH 5.2-5.3
Final pH 3.9-4.0