304 Carbohydrate hydrolases and their application in breadmaking.

J. M. HIGGINS and D. M. Small. School of Life Sciences and Technology, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.

Various enzymes appear to play a role in the breadmaking process. Carbohydrate hydrolytic enzymes such as amylase function in providing a source of low molecular weight sugars for yeast fermentation. Similarly, xylanases hydrolyse large wheat arabinoxylans to produce a range of oligosaccharides that appear to aid in providing soft textural characteristics for baked products. In the current study, a variety of these enzymes have been applied in a model baking system to investigate their effect on wheat arabinoxylans and amylose during baking. The impact of the preparations was studied using HPLC. Preliminary results show an increase in the levels of some mono-; and disaccharides in breads stored for 72 hours. This finding indicates that at least some enzymes remain active after baking. Data obtained for breads made using a number of xylanase preparations showed an increase in the levels of lower molecular weight xylose fractions compared with the untreated breads.