111 Staling of bread: The disease, the cause and the cure.

J. B. NIELSEN, T. Spendler, and C. C. Fuglsang. Novo Nordisk A/S, Bagsvaerd, DK-2880 Denmark.

A huge amount of bread is discarded still today because of the staling phenomenon, either at the bakery, the supermarket or by the consumer at home. The impressive amount of literature on the subject reveals the level of scientific and commercial interest in prolonging the shelf life by reducing the rate of bread ageing. We will discus the relation between textural proper-ties of bread crumb and ageing behaviour of amylose and amylopectin; the role of amylose and amylopectin in bread, and how the ageing can be separated into various phases. It will be shown how the ageing profiles of these phases can be changed by monoglycerides and amy-lases. A method for predicting the antistaling potential of an amylase will be discussed. The classification is based on a new textural plot that reveals, with a surprisingly powerful resolution, to what group an amylase belongs to.