New fat database aims to cut cost and food waste

14-Jul-2015 - Last updated on 15-Jul-2015 at 07:26 GMT

'Holy Grail': the optimum performance of bakery fats

A new bakery fat database developed by New Britain Oils (NBO), in conjunction with the UK pastry producer Pork Farms, can cut wastage and downtime, NBO claims.

Information about the chemical and nutritional composition of fat used in bakery was readily available, but details about its functional properties – relative to different processing techniques – was not, according to NBO technical manager Adam Thomas.

“In the production of pastry products, the texture of the fat is critical,” he explained. “Too hard or too soft and it can have a major effect on quality, which can lead to wastage or reworking,” Thomas added.

Texture analyser

However, by using a texture analyser to gather information about bakery fats, Thomas, along with Pork Farms’s raw materials continuous improvement technologist John Macron, was able to measure their physical attributes.

Measurements included the levels of compression, extrusion, puncture and the hardness and softness of fats, he said.

Identifying the optimum performance levels of bakery fats had been a long-standing industry goal, Thomas claimed.

“It sounds like a simple concept, but for many industrial bakers, it remains the ‘Holy Grail’,” he added.

Both Thomas and Macron compared and analysed hundreds of bakery fat samples over several months to build a database showing the effects of fat texture on finished products, which can be applied at a practical level, they claimed.

“Being able to have a consistent, accurate point of reference on product performance will provide enormous advantages,” according to Thomas.

Greater efficiency and reduced waste

“For customers like Pork Farms, this means greater production efficiency and reduced waste, both of which have a significant financial value,” he added.

Thomas and Macron would now work on a system to further reduce textural fluctuations, which could benefit quality and production efficiency further, as well as reducing waste.

Macron said: “Through this work, we have already been able to significantly reduce the amount of down-time and levels of waste in our factory.

“We have saved time and effort by being able to quickly identify the route cause of issues, whether product or technology related.”