STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF ALPHA-AMYLASE ON COMMERCIAL BREAD PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

Enzymes are proteins specialized to catalyze biological reactions. Enzymes play a vital role in everyday activities at home and in the baking industry for bread manufacture. In an effort to increase the shelf life of backed goods through conventional baking agents, sodium meta-bi-sulfite or commercial yeast and alpha amylase enzymes were considered in this study. The materials of the study were yeast and alpha amylase. Methodology followed for the experiment was straight and sponge dough method. Temperature, PH, alpha amylase and leavening agents were the parameters considered in bread making recipes instead of using baking yeast for a specific strain. At 60°C, amylase showed only 60 % of its optimum activity at PH 5.5 to 6.0 which coincided with the value given at fermentation period and it was observed that most effective power of enzyme was 12 gm%. The experimental results showed that, the use of one per cent alpha amylase was most effective for the leavening of bread. On the other hand, 1.5 per cent yeast required for leavening of the bread and no doubt was very expensive compared to utilization of alpha amylase. Therefore, the study reveals that, utilization of alpha amylase in bread manufacturing industry might reduce backing cost compared to yeast which is being imported from foreign countries. Moreover, it is possible to produce alpha amylase at large scale using raw materials available in the countries like Bangladesh.