Flour treatment agent

Flour treatment agents (also called improving agents or dough improvers) are food additives combined with flour to improve baking functionality. There are wide ranges of these conditioners used in bakery processing, which fall into four main categories: bleaching agents, oxidizing and reducing agents, enzymes and emulsifiers.

Flour bleaching agents are added to flour to make it appear whiter (freshly milled flour is yellowish), to oxidize the surfaces of the flour grains, and help with developing of gluten.

Oxidizing agents are added to flour to help with gluten development. They may or may not also act as bleaching agents. Originally flour was naturally aged through exposure to the atmosphere. Oxidizing agents primarily affect sulphur containing amino acids that ultimalty help form a disulphide bridge between gluten molecules. The addition of these agents to flour will create a stronger dough.^[1]

Common oxidizing agents are:

• various flour bleaching agents
• azodicarbonamide (E927)
• carbamide (E927b)
• potassium bromate (E924, the component which gives bromated flour its name, used mainly in the midwest and east of the US, acts as a bleaching agent)
• ascorbic acid (used mainly in the western US, helps form gluten)
• phosphates
• malted barley
• potassium iodate

Reducing agents help to weaken the flour by breaking the protein network. This will help with various aspects of handling a strong dough. The benefits of adding these agents are reduced mixing time, reduced dough elastity, reduced proofing time, and improved machinability.^[2]

Common reducing agents are:

• L-cysteine (E920, E921; quantities in the tens of ppm range help soften the dough and thus reduce processing time)
• fumeric acid
• sodium bisulphate
• non-leavened yeast
• ascorbic acid

Notes

References

Hui Y and Cork H (2006). Bakery products: science and technology. Blackwell Publishing.