Miller Magazine Issue: 124 April 2020

59 COVER STORY MILLER / APRIL 2020 C- EMULSIFIERS: There are two types of emulsifiers in baking: a. Dough-firming emulsions: Such as di- methyl tartaric acid, steroid and calcium or sodium lactylate, they make the dough stronger and the bread better and larger. b. Dough-softening emulsions: Such as glycerides of fatty acids, they help to ob- tain longer shelf life for bread. D- VITAMINS and MINERALS: Vitamins are widely used in the milling and baking industry to enhance the nutritional value of products and also to work as an- tioxidants such as vitamin E. The vitamins that are used as flour improvers are: Vita- min A, Vitamin B1 (Thiamin), Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Folic Acid. Flour Improvers are also used to produce a variety of basic flour mixtures for different industries in order to improve the quality of the end product. Flour mixes are made using one or more of the improvers mentioned above to satisfy the various needs of flour consumers to produce different food products. Mixtures are produced as follows: 1. Bread flour mix 2. Pasta flour mix 3. Cake flour mix 4. Biscuit flour mix 5. Croissant mix 6. Pizza mix 7. Multi-cereal flour mix 8. Multi-seed flour mix The Egyptian market is at the forefront of the Middle Eastern markets in terms of the consumption of flour improvers by mills, this started at 1998 when private sector mills started the production of fortified flour with 72% extraction rate to cover the growing demand for flour of various kinds in the Egyptian market. Flour improvers are imported fromWestern Europe, Turkey, China and the United States. Flour improvers consumption in Egypt is estimated at about 7,000 ton/ year with a growth rate of 5% yearly. Enzymes are the most used types of flour improvers in Egypt and reach almost 45% of the total amount of improvers used. The companies that flour improvers are imported from are: the Danish company No- vozymes, the Swiss company DSM, the German Companies Mühlenchemie, Ter Hell &CO and Edge-Foods, the Turkish company Vatan Gida and Orkila Group. The main consumers of flour improvers in Egypt and the Middle East are: Mills: Flour mills are considered one of the largest consumers of all kinds of flour improvers. Using flour improvers has pro- vided the possibility to use multiple types of wheat of various qualities at mills in recent years because, as mentioned be- fore, flour improvers help to overcome problems caused by poor wheat quality, which resulted in an increased consump- tion in the Middle East for low-protein Russian and Ukrainian wheat instead of the American or Australian wheat Pasta and noodles factories: There are two types of pasta factories in the Middle East, the first type that uses durum semolina and the other type that uses flour in pasta pro- duction, which explains their need for improvers to make the flour more suitable for producing pasta Biscuit, cake and croissant factories: These factories use flour improvers by adding them to flour to improve their end products. Bread and pastry factories and large bakeries: Some bread factories and large bakeries prefer to separately buy the flour and improvers to be combined later in their fac- tories or in the bakery. Using flour improvers at bakeries is very important to control the quality of products Other companies and factories: There are some factories that add flour improvers and vitamins to their products like corn flakes factories and some sweets factories and that is to enhance the nutritional value of their products The market of flour improvers in the Middle East is a promis- ing market that is constantly growing with an estimated growth rate of 5% annually. This is the result of the growing number of flour mills and their increased production capacity and com- petitiveness in Egypt and the region in addition to the large and continuous increase in the population, the increased number of pasta, biscuit and pastry factories and of course due to the qual- ity fluctuation of wheat used by mills. All these factors have led to an increased consumption of flour improvers in the region.