Effect of hydrocolloids and emulsifiers on the shelf‐life of composite cassava‐maize‐wheat bread after storage

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of hydrocolloids and/or emulsifiers on the shelf-life of composite cassava-maize-wheat (ratio 40:10:50) reference bread during storage. Added hydrocolloids were carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and high methoxyl pectin (HM pectin) at a 3% level (w/w) and/or the emulsifiers diacetyl tartaric acid esters of monoglycerides (DATEM), lecithin (LC), and monoglycerides (MG) at a 0.3% level (w/w). After 4 days of storage, composite breads with MG had comparatively lower crumb moisture while crumb density was similar in all breads. The reference bread crumb firmness was 33.4 N, which was reduced with an addition of DATEM (23.0 N), MG (29.8 N), CMC (24.6 N) or HM pectin (22.4 N). However, the CMC/DATEM, CMC/LC, and HM pectin/DATEM combinations further reduced crumb firmness to <20.0 N. The melting peak temperature was increased from 52 C to between 53.0 C and 57.0 C with added hydrocolloids and/or emulsifiers. The melting enthalpy of the retrograded amylopectin was lower in composite bread with hydrocolloids and emulsifiers, 6.7-11.0 J/g compared to 20.0 J/g for the reference bread. These results show that emulsifiers in combination with hydrocolloids can improve the quality and extend the shelf-life of composite cassava-maize-wheat breads.