Improving the quality and shelf life of white bread with calcium propionate, acetic acid and sorbic acid

Abstract

White bread has a short shelf life, thus the loses its desired charcteracteristics upon storage and its also subject to spoilage by fungi. To avoid this spoilage and increase shelf life, the addition of different levels of acidulants (calcium propionate, acetic acid and sorbic acid at 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3%) were evaluated for their quality characteristics contributing with acidulants as well as their microbial shelf life during 12 days of storage. In addition, the mathematical model (GAB and BET) were applied to study the storage condition of bread. From the experiment, it was found that bread with calcium propionate addition had the highest specific volume and springiness, followed by bread with acetic acid and sorbic acid adding. On the other hand, bread contained sorbic acid had the highest density, hardness, chewiness and color values (L*, a*,b*), followed by acetic acid and calcium propionate addition in order. Bread contained calcium propionate had the longest shelf life (12 days), followed by bread with acetic acid (8 days) and sorbic acid (6 days) adding, respectively. The increase in acidulants levels result in an increase of bread shelf life. From the sorption isotherm curves, bread contained 0.3% calcium propionate had the highest monolayer moisture content, indicating that it was the most effective against microbrial spoilage of white bread studied.