NATURAL YEAST – opportunity for differentiation in the bakery market

The potential and advantages of natural enzymes

Taking into account the fact that common bread contains only a few ingredients – flour, water, yeast and salt – it is not easy to find differentiating elements between the industrial and the artisan segment.

However, in order to distinguish themselves on the market, artisanal bakers have tried various variations, and the most inspired have settled on natural yeast (mayo), which they produce from natural ingredients.

Even though the technology of production with the help of natural enzymes has been used since ancient times, its use is now seen as an opportunity to obtain clearly differentiated products, a method by which bakers can give the product a "stroke” unique, harder to copy.

Natural yeast, also called maya or wild yeast, can be obtained by different methods. Regardless of the methods used, the main objective is to obtain a strong leavening agent, which contains resistant microorganisms and well adapted to the working environment. These microorganisms have the ability to produce enough CO2 to cause an increase in volume of doughs, but also to obtain products with special organoleptic properties.

Among the advantages of using natural enzymes are:

• the finished product presents a clearly superior quality and sensory properties, having an intense taste and aroma, and the porosity and elasticity of the core are optimal;
• after a few days of baking, bread with natural mayo is nutritionally enriched (the natural yeasts inside are still working), while brewer's yeast bread tends to dry out and its core becomes crumbly;
• the finished products are beneficial for the human body.

A great advantage of products made with natural yeast is that they keep much better and for a longer period of time, thanks to:

• high degree of acidity from maya, which inhibits the development of molds;
• enzymatic action in yeast, which slows down the reaggregation of starch;
• the production of exopolysaccharides by lactic acid bacteria, which acts on the texture of the products as a stabilizer, thus avoiding the need to use food additives.

What is mayo and how is it made?

Technically speaking, leaven (natural or wild yeast) is obtained by the spontaneous fermentation, in the ambient environment, of a mixture formed of water and wheat flour, left to mature for a certain period of time. Microorganisms present in flour, water and air reproduce and begin to ferment, giving rise to a natural leavening agent, which can be in liquid or solid form. Therefore, mayo is nothing but this mixture of flour and water, which, after several days of "INCREASE" or "feeding”, it will acquire a sufficient degree of acidity, conferred by a complex of yeasts and lactic bacteria, being able to activate the leavening of doughs. This capability is achieved and maintained through consecutive refreshes and feeds.

Simple, but not easy

The refresh and feed process refers to the technique by which the initial dough (made from flour and water, which ferments spontaneously for a well-determined period of time and at a controlled storage temperature) will later be added as a fermentation base in a new dough.

Although it seems simple, the traditional technology for obtaining natural yeast involves a complex biochemical process. It is influenced by a series of variables: the hygiene of the environment in which the process is carried out, the hygiene of the utensils or equipment used, the exact control of the temperature... All these factors can negatively influence the quality of the yeast, if the requirements are not respected. Therefore, the experience, skill and skill of bakers are not always sufficient to guarantee the stability and efficiency of natural yeast in the fragile conditions of biological balance.

Help comes from technology

Given that it is not easy to obtain yeast, although it offers so many advantages, it is a salutary approach of the producers of equipment in the creation of automated fermenters, dedicated to this process. Through the technology used in the production of these machines, optimal results are guaranteed, thus supporting bakers and helping them to value both their craftsmanship and their passion.

Such technology comes from Italy, the country with a wide variety of bakery products, where traditions have kept their well-deserved place.

The Italian manufacturer has made such fermenters, with various capacities, intended for small and medium-sized bakeries. Currently, the manufacturer's range consists of small-capacity fermenters, starting from 5 and up to 50 liters, and by the end of 2019, the new models with capacities of 100 and 150 liters will enter production, their prototypes being in final testing phase. These equipments have been designed in such a way as to allow the programming, visualization and control of the entire process of obtaining natural yeast.

Industrial-grade technologies for such processes also come from Italy, given that the bakery industry sector is increasingly moving towards manufacturing solutions with natural ingredients. The company is one of the manufacturers that offers such fermenters with industrial capabilities for the automated production and dosing of natural yeast. has already installed, in two large production units in our country, such industrial systems, next year it will install another five.

Advantages of using a fermenter

The fermentation equipment produced by the company allows obtaining a constantly refreshed natural yeast, thanks to the controlled and precise dosing of water and flour. The natural yeast obtained will have homogeneous physico-chemical characteristics, due to the continuous mixing of the dough mass, a process that is ensured by an inverter motor, with several speeds, but also by an electro-agitator with mixing paddles and a scraping system of the tank walls. The control over these processes leads to obtaining a natural yeast with optimal parameters, capable of providing, subsequently, to the final dough, a beneficial effect and superior visco-elastic properties, thus improving digestibility and substantially reducing intolerance, following the consumption of the finished products .

Monitoring the degree of acidity of the yeast, carried out by means of the PH-meter provided with the equipment, leads to a rigorous and linear fermentation process. Thus, keeping this balance in a controlled manner, the dough obtained with this yeast will be more resistant to molds and bacteria.

Small capacity equipment is equipped with a single discharge valve, through which the yeast is taken, leaving a minimum amount in the tank and necessary to create the new ferment flow. Models with a higher capacity are equipped with a second valve, for the total discharge of the tank, thus facilitating the cleaning operation of the equipment.

Electronic display, of the touch screen type, allows the control of the temperature, duration and speed of work in the ripening stage, as well as of the parameters in the preservation phase of the ferment, the equipment being thus easy to use and to customize. In this regard, it should be mentioned that the equipment also allows the customization of work cycles composed of several phases in sequence, by programming the temperature, duration and work speed related to each one separately.

Given that manufacturers can dispose of such equipment and technologies, it is obvious that they have a new world at their fingertips, where imagination has practically no limits. The ferment can be made from a multitude of natural ingredients, and the aromas and taste imparted to the finished products will be a delight for the end consumers.

Article by  Marius Costea, Director of sales of equipment and industrial lines