Cereal Chem. 71:223-226   |  VIEW ARTICLE


Water-Soluble Dextrins from alpha-Amylase-Treated Bread and Their Relationship to Bread Firming.

A. A. Akers and R. C. Hoseney. Copyright 1994 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

White bread was supplemented with malted barley flour, four bacterial, and two fungal sources of alpha- amylase to ascertain their effect on bread firming. The malt-supplemented bread firmed at a faster rate than the standard, unsupplemented bread. The fungal amylases and one of the bacterial amylases reduced the rate of bread firming compared to that of the standard. The remaining three bacterial amylases reduced the rate of bread crumb significantly more than did the other treatments. High-performance anion-exchange chromatography was used to analyze the water-soluble dextrins extracted from the aged, supplemented, and unsupplemented bread crumb. Certain peak areas obtained from the chromatograms were shown to be highly correlated with a reduced rate of bread crumb firming. Other peaks were highly correlated with an increased rate of bread crumb firming. When comparing only the bacterial enzymes, the three bacterial alpha-amylases that produced the lowest rate of bread crumb firming produced peaks that were significantly and highly correlated to a reduced rate of bread crumb firming. The fourth bacterial amylase supplemented bread, which firmed at the same rate as the two fungal amylase supplemented breads, contained more carbohydrate in those peaks and significantly and positively correlated to an increased rate of bread crumb firming.