Kerry launched its new Biobake™ Fibre enzyme solution into Europe’s EUR 17 billion traditional and organic rye, rye-wheat and wholemeal bakery markets. The new solution improves bread quality, volume and softness, and works to sustainably reduce energy and operational costs by maintaining good dough processability and ease of slicing, Kerry highlights. Biobake Fibre is a patented solution with no negative impacts on the traditional taste and authentic aromas of rye bread formulations over their shelf life.
Biobake Fibre allows for significant productivity gains by increasing bread volume by up to 24% and softness by up to 55%; improving softness will naturally reduce the likelihood of waste. The new enzyme solution maintains good dough processability, improves bread slicing, and has no negative impact on taste or aroma. Additionally, it is organic, kosher, halal and vegetarian suitable.
Rye or rye-wheat blended breads comprise 17% of the almost 15,000 new bread launches that occurred globally between 2021 and 2023, Kerry research shows. Rye bread is considered to be a quality source of healthy fiber; ‘high source of fiber’ is the third-ranked claim on rye bread launches conducted over the same time frame. As consumers sought healthier alternatives coming out of the pandemic, there was a 16% rise in consumption of rye bread globally in 2022 and 2023.
Deborah Waters, PhD, Global Product Director, Enzymes at Kerry commented on the new enzyme system: “Biobake Fibre is an innovative enzyme solution designed to ensure superior volume, excellent crumb softness and good machinability in rye and rye-wheat bread formulations. This technology delivers improved finished product quality, optimized slicing, and good dough machinability.” This can help to reduce process downtime and support a sustainable reduction in operational costs while reducing bread waste.
“This clean-label, vegetarian and organic-suitable enzyme solution can help manufacturers meet their operational cost and sustainability targets. Most importantly, the high-quality taste and appearance of the finished rye bread has been confirmed by sensory trials conducted over the product’s shelf life. In short, Biobake Fibre is an excellent addition to Kerry’s extensive range of enzymes that improves the productivity, sustainability and overall quality of bakery products.”
The Biobake Fibre enzyme solution works on rye’s high concentration of non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs)—which are important functional components, but ones that tend not to be process-friendly during dough handling. In rye dough, NSPs are functionally more important than protein given that rye proteins are unable to form gluten in the way wheat proteins can.
NSPs negatively affect water distribution during dough production because of their water-binding properties, resulting in a dough that is difficult to process; this ultimately leads to reduced bread volume and limits final bread quality. Biobake Fibre reduces the NSP water-binding capability and allows for better hydration and dough development. The NSPs then create consistent dough rheology, improving tolerance and gas retention, and in turn will increase specific volume, leading to enhanced crumb texture, and avoiding the creation of small crumb bubbles that can make slicing more difficult.
