When it comes to bread, the next best thing since the slicer may be dough conditioners. These ingredients enable bakers to produce consistent, high-quality baked goods despite price pressure, a shortage of skilled labor and other challenges that impact operations. 

“By integrating dough conditioners into their processes, bakers can achieve a more consistent output, better manage the uncertainties of environmental conditions and enhance overall production efficiency,” said Joseph Gontowski, R&D manager, BreadPartners. “This not only improves the quality and consistency of the baked goods but also optimizes operational capabilities, making high-volume production more feasible and reliable.”

Another advantage of these ingredients is their ability to extend the dough’s window of tolerance. 

“This means the dough can perform well under suboptimal conditions, whether it’s under-proofed or over-proofed, and still achieve optimal oven spring,” Gontowski said. “This flexibility is particularly valuable in a commercial setting where process bottlenecks, mechanical breakdowns or human errors might otherwise compromise the dough’s performance.”

Such consistency can be especially challenging when the same product is baked in different areas of the country. A sandwich white bread in Los Angeles should replicate the same brand’s offering in New York City.

“Bakers often deal with fluctuations in flour quality and other raw ingredients,” said Thierry Etienne, vice president, baking innovation and customer technical partnership, Lallemand. “They also rely on different production processes and equipment to produce the broad assortment of baked goods that consumers demand.”

It’s not just fresh breads and buns that benefit from dough conditioners. Frozen doughs, including par-baked items for in-store bakeries, pizza crust and more, bake up better with the right conditioning system.

“Dough conditioners can help to make the dough more tolerant to handling and storage and improve shelf life of both the dough and the finished bread product,” said Viet Ha, technical sales manager, Amano Enzyme USA. “They can also expedite the rising process and strengthen the gluten network of the resulting dough. This can help improve the resiliency, elasticity and overall texture profile of the bread product.” 

Dough conditioners are worth the investment. 

“The more products that do not meet a bakery’s specifications, the higher the discards and increased cost to the manufacturer,” said David Guilfoyle, design manager, bakery, IFF. “Investing in good dough conditioners can help manage costs.”

The term dough conditioner is not defined or regulated. It typically refers to a blend of functional ingredients, albeit ingredients not typically found in a home kitchen. The category is also very broad and always evolving as formulations change and new ingredients get identified. 

“Dough conditioners perform a myriad of essential functions that help industrial bakeries produce their best breads at scale,” said Cam Suarez-Bitar, director of marketing and public relations, Bellarise. “For instance, when properly formulated to suit an industrial bakery’s goals, processes and recipes, dough conditioners ensure a bread’s symmetry and the proper crumb structure expected for a specific application or bread type.”

They also make dough more machinable, ensuring it is easier to run through production systems, Suarez-Bitar said. 

“In addition to enhancing a dough’s physical attributes, dough conditioners improve efficiency by reducing proof times and dough attrition, thereby enabling industrial bakeries to streamline their processes and improve yield on a weight basis,” he said.

Most dough conditioners are classified as emulsifiers, enzymes, oxidizing agents, pH regulators, reducing agents or yeast nutrients. Basically anything added to a dough beyond flour, salt, sugar, water, yeast and ingredients for color, flavor and mold inhibition are recognized as dough conditioners. Even eggs function as a dough conditioner because they are a source of lecithin.

“Lecithin is an excellent natural emulsifier to create a stronger dough,” said Rama Jonnala, senior manager, bakery product strategic manager, Glanbia Nutritionals. “Lecithin also functions to increase gas retention, giving better strength, volume and symmetry of both yeast-raised and chemically leavened baked goods.”

Some dough conditioners are multi-functional. Others perform very specific tasks. 

“Having a thorough understanding of the functionality of each ingredient in a formula, as well as what is already optimized or not, is critical,” Etienne said. “Excessive overdosing or using the wrong combinations of conditioners with existing chemical ingredients is a sure recipe for poor-quality bread.”

Historically, the baked goods industry had to prioritize what they wanted from dough conditioners. They could be inexpensive, clean label or highly effective, but usually not all three at once.

“More than a decade ago, many different dough conditioners were commonly used, including various oxidants, such as ADA (azodicarbonamide) and iodates and emulsifiers, such as DATEM (diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides) and SSL (sodium stearoyl lactylate),” said Jesse Stinson, director of research, development and applications, Corbion. “While these traditional dough conditioners are very functional, we often are asked to develop solutions with a simpler ingredient statement.” 

That’s where enzymes enter the picture. Baking enzymes are categorized as protein, but they typically do not contribute to the protein content of foods as they are used at minute levels. They are clean label and are described as biocatalysts, which implies they initiate biochemical reactions and influence the speed of the reaction. This includes the many transformations that take place in doughs.

“Enzymes break down molecules such as starch, protein and fat in the dough to provide improved functionality,” Jonnala said.

Enzymes function in a substrate-specific manner, with the enzyme’s active site modifying a compound on a substrate. Once the enzyme does its work, it becomes an inactive compound without any direct impact on the product’s sensory attributes. Often, after completing a reaction, steps are taken to deactivate the enzyme to prevent it from further reacting. This may be accomplished through heat, change in pH, high pressure and other variables.

“In most applications, enzymes can be considered a food processing aid and would not need to be added on the ingredient list,” Ha said. 

The advantages of enzymatic conditioners became clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, when logistical disruptions and fluctuations in the global vegetable oil market significantly increased the cost of traditional emulsifiers, said Mark Zielonka, national R&D product specialist, BreadPartners.

“In contrast, enzymatic solutions remained stable, unaffected by the volatility affecting global markets,” he added.

Emulsifiers improve dough stability by enhancing gas retention and distribution within the dough, leading to better loaf volume and crumb structure. Enzyme systems have been designed to replace them.

“Oxidizing agents also strengthen the dough through disulfide bonding, improving gas retention,” said Amr Shaheed, technical services and application development manager, Innophos. “Reducing agents, on the other hand, break down the protein network in the dough, reducing mixing and proofing time.”

Other dough conditioners include yeast nutrients, which promote yeast growth. This provides for faster carbon dioxide production. Various pH regulators, namely mineral salts, improve environmental conditions for better gluten binding and faster fermentation.

“Phosphate salts, such as monocalcium phosphate, enhance the colloidal properties of bread dough and act as pH regulators by lowering and optimizing dough pH,” Shaheed said.

Even gums and fibers may be considered dough conditioners. They help bind water for moisture retention purposes, as well as strengthen dough and add nutritional value, according to Jerry Savino, technical services manager, bakery, Kemin Food Technologies. 

With so much functionality in dough conditioners, it’s important bakers choose the right one  they need for their specific product. 

“Multi-functional dough conditioners are typically developed with a broader use in mind so they contain a cocktail of ingredients that can provide one or more functions,” said Sherrill Cropper, new product development lab manager, Lesaffre. “Recommending a dough conditioner depends on a number of parameters.”

When choosing an option for an anti-staling effect, for example, it’s good to understand what length of shelf life is being targeted for the final product and the attributes that are most important. Is it just softness? Maybe it’s softness and resilience, or softness, resilience and moistness?

“Bakers are often able to replace five conventional ingredients with one enzyme alternative,” Cropper said.

This article is an excerpt from the August 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Dough Conditioners, click here.