Description
You’ll be able to reduce proof time
and increase dough tolerance while producing bread that remains
mold free longer than breads using a natural mold inhibiter
like vinegar. So you can give consumers exactly what they look for:
A product made with all natural
ingredients.
Cultured wheat flour is a natural mold inhibitor that can be added
to bread dough as a natural preservative. Although the term or
approved label verbiage “cultured wheat flour” is confusing and
doesn’t accurately describe the ingredient, it is the starting base
product of this ingredient. Cultured wheat flour is a fermented
product in which the desired functional food product is what is
obtained from that fermentation. The wheat flour is the
carbohydrate source in which water, a culture, probably a lactic
acid-type bacteria, is added and a fermentation is allowed to
occur. The end product is a collection of metabolites produced by
the microbe. Most certainly, many types of metabolites are
produced; including acids such as lactic, propionic, and other
organic acids.
As far as labeling goes, it is impossible to declare all the
metabolites produced in this fermentation, thus the term “cultured
wheat flour” is used. In addition, the microbes used to ferment the
wheat flour do not have to be listed on the food ingredient label.
This is a comparable situation to cheese, for example. The microbes
used to make cheese are not listed on the cheese ingredient label.
This is most likely due to the fact that you are not consuming the
microorganism in the food product, but instead are consuming a
product that is the result of the action (fermentation) of
microorganisms. Often times, the type of microorganism used is
proprietary, but be assured, these microorganisms must be from the
family of lactic acid bacteria that are approved for the use in
foods.
Cultured wheat flour is sold as a free-flowing powder that can be
easily added to bread dough. One commercial product is called
Mold-Out®, produced by the American Casein Company. This
all-natural mold inhibitor adds many other functional advantages
for the producer and the consumer. It helps control pH of the dough
and helps with stabilizing the dough structure. In some cases, less
yeast can be used, due to the advantage of optimal pH conditions. A
big plus for the consumer is that the use of cultured wheat flour
eliminates the necessity of using chemical preservatives in bread.
Manufactures can market their products as preservative free, which
means, it doesn’t contain chemical or artificial preservatives.
