Datem may boost gluten-free formulations
Writing in the peer-reviewed Journal of Food Engineering, Turkish researchers report that using Datem emulsifiers with rice dough produced rice bread with good volume and sensory characteristics.
“Therefore, to reach the desired rheological properties and to obtain the acceptable quality values in gluten-free rice breads, Datem can be recommended to be used with to be used with different gums,” wrote the researchers, led by Gulum Sumnu from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara.
Such developments could help improve the offerings available to the growing community of people consuming gluten-free food. Since it was valued at a modest $580m in 2004, the global market has grown at an average annual rate of 29 per cent and last year was worth $1.56bn, according to Packaged Facts. It could be worth as much as $2.6bn by 2012.
Demands for bread of consistent quality with a long shelf life have led to the use of additives in products, including emulsifiers, enzymes, reductants and antioxidants. Datem emulsifiers (diacetyl tartaric esters of mono-glycerides) are used to improve bread volume, texture and dough stability.
The new research reports that Datem, in combination with xanthan gum, or blends of xanthan and guar, or xanthan and locust bean gum, enhance the firmness, volume, and dough structure.
Rice bread formulated with Puratos’ Purawave emulsifier also performed well when used with xanthan and guar gum, and xanthan and locust bean gum, said the researchers. “However, the desired firmness, volume and sensory results could be obtained for all bread samples containing DATEM as an emulsifier,” said the researchers.
Despite the common usage of emulsifiers and hydrocolloids in bread formulation, Sumnu and his co-workers report that no study has reported the effect of the emulsifier-hydrocolloid blends with respect to rice dough for gluten-free formulations.
A range of hydrocolloids was used, including xanthan gum, guar gum, locust bean gum, hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC), pectin, xanthan-guar, and xanthan-LBG blend, in combination with either Purawave (Puratos) or Datem.
“Although breads prepared using only gums had softer texture than breads prepared without the addition of gums, these breads still had harder texture values compared to wheat breads,” wrote the researchers. “Therefore, the addition of emulsifier is essential to ensure that gluten-free breads have comparable quality parameters with that of wheat breads.
“This study shows that the addition of Purawave or especially Datem is critical to obtain required volume of the rice flour based breads," they concluded.
Moving away from Datem
Despite the positive results for Datem in this study, the wider food industry is being offered an increasing number of options of alternatives. Companies such as DSM Food Specialties, Novozymes, and Danisco are all offering enzyme alternatives to Datem for general bread production.
Source: Journal of Food Engineering
January 2010, Volume 96, Issue 2, Pages 295-303
“Rheological properties of gluten-free bread formulations”
Authors: Ilkem Demirkesen, Behic Mert, Gulum Sumnu, Serpil Sahin
