Drew Ladd has loved baking since he was a kid. Today, he’s committed to inspiring that love of baking in the next generation. 

Ladd grew up baking through the 4-H program, and coming from a family of Kansas State University (KSU) graduates, he was drawn to the school’s bakery science program.

“During my time at KSU, I was exposed to the industry through the American Society of Baking (ASB) and got to see firsthand what a great industry it is,” he said. “It’s unique and inspiring to know that so many spend their entire careers here and build a great network and camaraderie along the way.”

As a member of ASB, Ladd has been instrumental in shaping the Young Professional committee and the Product Development Competition. He says helping both grow over the years has been incredibly rewarding.

“Giving back and helping inspire and recruit new, young bakers to our industry through ASB is something I’m really proud of,” he said. 

Ladd also contributes to the Bakers National Education Foundation, which offers financial support to train bakers and allied personnel. 

Supporting the next generation of bakers this way helps combat the skills gap seen in many bakeries today, which Ladd said is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry. He has observed a lack of understanding about the baking process, ingredient functionality and how both tie together.

“It can be difficult for plant personnel to troubleshoot without a solid understanding of ingredients, making it hard for them to keep up with the technology,” Ladd said. “As an ingredient supplier, we need to continue to develop technology that has a wide range of tolerance to different processes and environments to help bridge this gap.”

Ladd graduated from KSU with a bachelor’s degree in bakery science and began his career in plant operations as a production supervisor and production superintendent. A few years later he became a director of continuous improvement, implementing Lean Six Sigma methodology in plants across the organization. 

Ladd then transitioned to a chocolate and confectionery company as a senior manager of industrial performance. He continued as process technology manager, overseeing the company’s new product commercialization and updating the ingredients and packaging of existing products. Now in his 11th year in the industry, Ladd works as IFF’s senior R&D designer, developing new products and supporting ingredient innovation. 

“I love being hands-on and active in the lab, baking and problem solving,” Ladd said. “I’ve spent most of my career in operations, so I’m really enjoying connecting what we see in the lab to what could be happening on the production floor. Getting to be a part of developing a product from the lab to the production line is exciting.”

Here, Ladd discusses how bakers can improve product quality using emulsifiers.

What do emulsifiers bring to a bakery formulation?

Emulsifiers have a few different functions in bakery formulations. Their main functions involve improving crumb softness and dough strengthening. Baked products containing emulsifiers typically have improved volume, structure and dough handling properties. They play a big part in enabling easy processing of the doughs. As most processes are automated today, emulsifiers help strengthen the gluten structure, resulting in a uniform crumb and good volume.

What are some of the challenges emulsifiers can help address?

Emulsifiers can improve overall structure in cakes by creating a tighter crumb structure which traps air in the batter. In breads, emulsifiers are typically used to improve the dough’s strength and crumb softness throughout shelf life. Emulsifiers are a great benefit to doughs during processing. Most automated processes continue to break down the gluten matrix after the dough has left the mixing bowl. Emulsifiers help strengthen that gluten matrix by cross-linking the gluten-forming proteins. In gluten-free products, emulsifiers can help replace some of the structure lost from the lack of gluten and retain gas production to get better volume.

Why might fats and oils need an emulsifier in certain applications? 

Emulsifiers’ main function is to bring non-homogeneous ingredients together, like oil and water. Binding these together creates a uniform and consistent mixture. Keeping these together makes for a better eating experience and is an easy way to retain moisture in a product. This keeps cakes moist and breads soft.

How do emulsifiers help optimize fats and oils within a bakery formulation?

Emulsifiers can be blended into fats to create specialized shortenings like cake and icing shortening. Developers can then add the emulsified shortening without having to make any special process changes. Emulsifiers can help crystallize slower crystallizing fats by acting as crystal promotors. This can be helpful when moving away from trans fats and hydrogenated fats. In cake mixes, emulsifiers can be added to replace a portion of the solid fat.

How can bakers optimize the functionality of emulsifier ingredients in their bakery formulations? 

Emulsifiers are impacted by many factors like most ingredients. One emulsifier won’t work in all products or through all processes. Understanding the final characteristics of the final product can help decide on the emulsifier to use. Since so many factors can impact final product quality, it’s important to understand the role you need emulsifiers to play in the product. Also you must understand how other ingredients in the formula can help or hurt emulsifier functionality. Emulsifiers are often paired with oxidizing agents and enzymes to improve functionality, so all ingredients in the formula need to be evaluated to identify the best emulsifier.

What are some of the challenges when working with emulsifiers, and how can those challenges be addressed? 

Choosing the right emulsifier for the product is important and can save you a lot of time if done correctly from the start. Understanding the production process and systems in place plays an important role in deciding on emulsifiers. In production environments, the ability to scale and handle the ingredients should also be considered. Some micro scaling systems have difficulty precisely scaling hydrated emulsifiers, and dry emulsifiers can clump if not stored properly. Emulsifiers typically need to be hydrated or combined with ingredients in the proper stages of mixing for greater functionality. Understanding if an emulsifier needs to be pre-hydrated or how ingredients are added in the mixing bowl can impact the functionality of the emulsifier. Understanding the stages of mixing for your product can help optimize the emulsifiers.

In light of the clean label movement, why do emulsifiers still have a place in bakery?

Emulsifiers will always play an important part in bakery products, no matter if they are chemical or natural emulsifiers. With the advancement of more enzyme technology, there are more clean label emulsifier options available. These are great replacements for common non-clean label emulsifiers and have very similar results. More consumers are wanting clean label products and are actively reading ingredient labels. Since consumers are accustomed to products that have used emulsifiers, they will expect the same product texture and appearance. Finding a more label-friendly way to achieve the same product results is critical for any new product launch.