Kerry helps bakers to slash waste by ramping up the shelf life of sweet baked treats
Biobake Fresh Rich is a clean label starch-acting enzyme that enables bakery products that contain more than 20% sugar to remain fresher for longer, thus significantly reducing waste.
Food waste is a complex phenomenon around the globe that has attracted attention from the scientific, as well as professional communities. One-third of the food produced every year is lost or wasted worldwide, contributing to environmental damage through emissions of greenhouse gases and other harmful substances. In fact, each kilogramme of food wasted generates approximately 1.6kg of CO2e.
Bread is the world’s most wasted product. In 2022, global production of bread tipped over 100 million tons, however, more than 900,000 tons was chucked, that’s around 24 million slices every day. Beyond the environmental implications, food waste also affects a baker’s bottom line. According to the Washington Post, a mid-sized bakery can easily produce 100 pounds of surplus bread every day - that’s a lot of dough in the bin.
Sweet bakery is also a big waster as a category for several reasons at every stage of production, including surplus ingredients/dough/product; inappropriate size/shape/colour; but mostly, unsold product that has reached the end of its perceived shelf life and freshness.
Therefore, maintaining product quality over a longer shelf life will contribute to a more sustainable future by reducing the likelihood of the bakery products being tossed by consumers.
Enter Biobake Fresh Rich, which is designed to create a softer, more consistent and flexible crumb structure, along with an improved perceived moistness.
“Kerry’s new Biobake Fresh Rich is a proven performer, maintaining product freshness, softness and moistness in high-sugar content products like muffins, pancakes and pound cakes over longer shelf life,” said Deborah Waters, product director for enzymes, Kerry.
“This delivers significant benefits in reducing food waste by making the supply chain more robust and improving the sustainability profiles of bakeries.
Consumers agree
“Our recent Kerry global consumer research [polling 5,154 consumers in 10 countries] confirmed enormous support around the world for reducing food waste through shelf life extension.
“It found 98% of consumers are actively trying to reduce food waste; over 72% believe improving shelf life would help reduce waste; and one-third would be willing to switch brand loyalties for a longer shelf life.
“Biobake Fresh Rich can help bakers address these important evolving consumer desires while allowing them to also contribute to a more sustainable environment.”
According to Kerry, the ingredient is available in a highly dispersible dry format, has a neutral taste and is suitable for kosher, halal, vegetarian and vegan product manufacture.
The Irish specialist also claims that in recent sensory trials, Biobake Fresh Rich significantly outperformed a benchmark fresh-keeping enzyme in both softness and moistness perception over a 12-week shelf life.
“Kerry offers a wide range of innovative enzyme technologies that can help industrial bakeries improve the efficiency and sustainability profiles of their product offerings,” said Waters.
“Extending shelf life is a strategy being used by many bakeries to increase product appeal with consumers, extend overall profits and reduce food waste. Biobake Fresh Rich is a versatile, clean label solution that maintains freshness in sweet bakery applications over a longer shelf life, helping build brand loyalty.”
