Hey there! These last few days I’ve been in bed with a terrible cold. Or maybe flu. I feel so much better now. I don’t sound better, but I am lol. I wanted to write something related to bread science, and this afternoon, while I was looking for articles to read I found something that immediately caught my attention:
“Bread crumbs extrudates: A new approach for reducing bread waste”
When I do experiments in the lab I bake lots of bread loaves, I take all the measurements I need and then I have to throw all that bread away. Since we use other chemicals and do other experiments our lab is not considered “safe” to eat the food we make.
Getting rid of all the bread is always very upsetting… And it makes me think about the baking industry. What do they do with all that bread waste they have?
In the baking industry, there are always problems, under and overcooked loaves, deformed loaves, mistakes in the formulation…. That’s bread that cannot be sold.
According to this article a whopping 12.5 MILLION TONS of bread per year are wasted. Just in the baking industry. I mean.. some can be used for bread crumbs but… those are way too many tons to turn into bread crumbs!
But… here comes science to the rescue!
Something that I love from food engineering is that it’s not only focused on developing new products, but also on using raw materials that are otherwise disposed of (Reducing waste and reducing the production of new materials).
This article explores the possibilities of making snacks using extruded bread.
Maybe the word “extruded” makes you cringe but worry not! Extrusion is a very common process in the food industry. Cheetos, macaroni, cheese, plant-based protein, cereals, cookie dough, French fries, and so many other products are examples of what extrusion can do.
The ingredients undergo high pressure and temperature conditions and they get shaped and cooked at somehow the same time.
After the extrusion, the product expands, and it’s usually a good signal when the expansion is relatively high because it makes the product puffy and the texture is just better.
In the video below you can see the type of machine they use. It’s not the same one, but you can have an idea of how it works and how the snack expands when it comes out of the machine.
Minute 2:02 is where you can see all this:
So what’s the deal with the bread?
Long story short, these scientists made a snack like the one on the video using bread that was going to waste. And they found that the expansion and texture of these snacks are better than the control ones made with flour. The fiber content was also higher than the initial ingredients, mostly because the starch of the bread turns into “resistant starch” (starch that cannot be digested and therefore counts as fiber).
This is particularly important because typically, food with high contents of fiber tends to either taste bad or have a poor textural quality.
So this new approach to bread waste also opens the door to many other options. The snacks can be mixed with other ingredients to increase their nutritional value. Different bread can lead to different nutritional profiles. The options are endless! This is just the beginning! And best of all?
1- We could reduce the waste of bread
2- We could have healthier options for our snacks
3- We could have cheaper
And all this while taking care of the environment, our health and our pocket!
In my opinion, this is a very good solution for a problem that’s only going to increase because the food industry keeps increasing, and therefore, the waste that comes along with it. And it’s also a good way to start developing better and healthier snacks!
I was planning on writing something about how important gluten is in bread making, but when I saw this article, I thought it was a very interesting topic and something I’d like to share with you.
Fiber up my friends!
See you soon!
Reference:
Samray, M. N., Masatcioglu, T. M., & Koksel, H. (2018). Bread Crumbs Extrudates: A New Approach for Reducing Bread Waste. Journal of Cereal Science.