Miller Magazine Issue: 139 July 2021

32 MILLER / july 2021 NEWS The flour treatment specialist Mühlenchemie has developed a new series of enzyme systems that improve flours for baking flatbreads. The toolkit contains various improvers that offer solutions for all the different kinds of flatbread. They make the final product better, and make industrial manufacture more economical. Flatbread has long been a staple food for much of the world’s population, for example in the Near and Middle East and in Africa. In many of these regions, the industrialisation of food production has advanced greatly in recent years, and flatbreads are no longer made exclusively artisanally, but also industrially. In the western nations as well, immi- gration and the trend to ethnic foods have made flatbread more and more popular. The growth of this already large market and the rising demands on production prompted Mühlenchemie to de- velop a new product line. This flour treatment specialist in Ahrensburg, Germany has thus expanded its portfolio of enzyme solutions to offer a comprehensive range of im- provers for flatbread, in addition to its existing products for bread, rolls, pasta and pastry. In industrial production the central goal is to make flat- breads with consistent quality. In order to do this, producers need flour that is standardised to certain specifications. These differ depending on the product and region. The many flat- breads made in the traditional way also need flour with the right qualities. A major challenge is that the flour has to be easy to roll out, while also being thin, stable and tear-resistant enough for mechanical working. Flatbread is best eaten fresh. One sign of freshness is that the bread is easy to fold. Depending on the type of flatbread, it may have to stay fresh for several days without getting too dry or too soft in its structure. Thus, despite its large surface area the baked flatbread must not lose too much moisture through evaporation, as water loss and recrystallisation of the starch would otherwise make the bread drier and less flexible. This multiplicity of requirements led Mühlenchemie’s en- zyme specialists to develop a toolkit that makes the produc- tion of all types of flatbread easier. It consists of a series of en- zyme systems for breads with short baking times that provide better dough working and baking characteristics. These in- clude higher stretch, rollability and dough stability, and better browning during baking, which also intensifies the flavour. The solutions in the toolkit extend fresh-keeping as well. Improving the economy of flatbread production was an important criteri- on in the development of the toolkit. Thus, it includes solutions that make it possible to use flour with low falling numbers, and other cheaper wheats, without sacrificing the quality of the fi- nal product. The enzyme systems in the toolkit also help the dough absorb more water. This gives higher dough yield for the same amount of raw materials. The flatbread toolkit consists of several Alphamalt improv- ers, the EMCEbest WA Visco+ and EMCEbest Flatbread RoG improvers, and specific enzymes. Used individually and in combinations, they provide targeted solutions for many differ- ent requirements in the manufacture of flatbread. Mühlenchemie develops toolkit for flatbread