2001 AACC Annual Meeting Charlotte, North Carolina October 14-18, 2001 Charlotte Convention Center

Refrigerated dough is a rapidly increasing bread market offering convenience for the bakeries and the consumers. It is, however, a problem that refrigerated dough is known to exhibit syruping. Syruping is a consequence of the deleterious breakdown of arabinoxylan, leading to a decrease in the water holding capacity of the dough over time. It is believed that the breakdown of arabinoxylan is due to the activity of endogenous xylanases in the wheat flour. The present work describes how syruping can be eliminated through the addition of a xylanase inhibitor. Xylanase inhibitor was purified from wheat flour through several chromatographic steps, including cation exchange chromatography, hydrophobic interaction chromatography and size exclusion chromatography. An extensive purification was needed to eliminate the effect from endogenous wheat xylanases. Dough containing different amounts of xylanase inhibitor was prepared. The dough was stored in sealed bags with CO(2) atmosphere at elevated temperature, to accelerate the syruping. The amount of syruping was evaluated as a function of time. The results showed that the highest dose of xylanase inhibitor studied, was able to prevent syruping totally. The control of endogenous flour enzyme activities through the use of inhibitors opens up new perspectives for manufacturing of refrigerated and normal dough.