Influencia de actividades enzimáticas

: Alfa-Amilase, Xilanase, Glucose-Oxidase e Fosfolipase : nos parâmetros reológicos de farinhas de trigo panificáveis

Abstract

The use of enzymes in baking processes – which are added to the flour in order to improve its performance and produce bread with better characteristics –, is more than a century old and it is an area of continuous development. Enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts to speed up specific reactions,
without being themselves modified in the process. While being produced by plants, animals or microorganisms, they are natural ingredients which can be interesting replacers of chemical additives.
This work contextualizes the theme and reviews the existing literature supporting the study developed during the MSc in Biotechnology and Innovation curricular internship. In this study, the effect of 3 different concentrations of 4 enzymes (α-amylase, xylanase, glucose-oxidase and phospholipase) on the rheological parameters of the wheat flour and in bread characteristics, in independent assays will be analyzed. The need of this analysis is due to the fact that in most cases it is usually added to the flour a set of enzymes, rather than just one, being important to verify its individual effect to eventually be able to optimize flour formulations used for bread making.
Enzymes have the capacity to cause diverse modifications in bread, like an increase in its volume, improvement in the crust color and in the crumb structure, softness, flavor enhancement and a delay in the staling process. Even though these effects were seen in practice tests, the cause and the reactions behind these results are not yet completely explained, since they are complex and coupled biochemical reactions that imply simultaneously many components of the ingredients typically used in bread making. So, regarding the results of the study, as future work it would be interesting to analyze the effect of the combination of these enzymes and value this potential synergy.
The study concluded which parameters are most affected by varying the concentration of the enzymes. It was found that the variation of the concentration of amylase was the one that will affect more rheological characteristics of flour. With respect to the bread volume it was found that the enzyme which concentration variation most affects this parameter is xylanase, concluding that an increased concentration of this enzyme will positively influence the bread volume.

Date of Award	29 Sept 2017
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ema Dias (Supervisor)