Baking with Hemicellulase

Recently work has been done on the action of pentosanases on pentosans in wheat and rye flours.They are important because they bind water and are responsible for post-bake stiffening and pentosanases are capable of clearing these materials and reducing the staling characteristics.Hemicellulase enzymes are a rich source of pentosanases and have shown good anti-staling characteristics in long-life braed trials.They attack at different sites on these non-starch polysaccharide chains.

Manufacturers may add them to reduce water binding in multi-grain cracker dough and improve dough machinability. With water more easily removed from the system, less baking or drying down time is required. Pentosanases and hemicellulases can also improve bread loaf volume by allowing greater dough expansion during fermentation and baking.