Kemin Industries has inaugurated a new Bakery Innovation Center at its global headquarters in Iowa, US. The US$1.5 million investment is designed to fuel innovation within the bakery market and comprises technical and analytical capacities to accelerate product development. Enabling the global ingredient manufacturer with the capacity to conduct its own research and product trials, the new facility offers time-saving and cost advantages for Kemin.

“What we have within this facility is the ability to replicate any type of bakery product that can be produced in large scale. In this facility, we do ingredient blending and small batch capabilities. This is important because it allows us to make our batch packs in a smaller, trial-type form,” says Courtney Schwartz, Marketing Director at Kemin Food Technologies.

The bakery expansion includes the launch of batch packs, premixes, emulsifiers and enzyme blends specific to flatbreads and baked goods. These products complement Kemin Food Technologies’ existing portfolio of plant extracts, antioxidants, dough conditioners, softeners and mold-inhibiting products to help manufacturers maintain safety and freshness.

“The Bakery Innovation Center gives us a way to screen and test all new ingredient solutions and processing parameters to ensure success, which is really exciting,” says Anita Srivastava, PhD, Senior Product Development Manager of Bakery Applications at Kemin Food Technologies.

The new facility enables bakery and snack manufacturers to expedite commercialization of new bakery products.“The facility brings together our scientists from different areas to learn and evaluate the commercial process in house, saving time and creating cost advantages, as extensive travel is no longer required. Now, we do not have to wait for a commercial facility to become available in order to run trials,” she adds.

The dedicated Bakery Innovation Center also combines R&D support and expertise, Customer Laboratory Services and an in-house bakery pilot plant. This allows bakery and snack manufacturers to expedite commercialization of new bakery products.

“We have four different ovens at this facility – a tortilla oven, a flatbread pizza or pita oven, and a couple of rotating deck ovens used for traditional baked goods such as bread and sweet products,” says Schwartz.

Highlights of the 2,300 sq ft bakery innovation facility include:

• Analytical lab allowing continuous evaluation of baked goods for texture and microbial stability to ensure texture remains consistent based on moisture and water activity. This lab includes a texture analyzer to help evaluate dough and finished products under all moisture variations.
• Ingredient blending and small batch capabilities in a dry blending center with the capabilities needed to develop new concentrates, premixes, batch packs and individual components.
• Pilot scale production capabilities including a complete tortilla line with a combination corn and flour tortilla oven that allows Kemin to mimic commercial production. All new ingredients and technologies can be screened and tested in all possible processing configurations before trials are done at a customer’s facility.
• Accelerated stability facility fully-equipped with storage incubators that have accelerated high-temperature and humidity conditions. This lets Kemin create atmospheric variations in lab to evaluate the shelf life of baked goods.

“Our new facility is a game-changer for our bakery business as it gives us the opportunity to work more closely with our customer-partners. We provide support to customers by helping them understand the process and science behind our ingredient solutions,” says Srivastava.

Mixing procedures, baking and storage temperatures, water activity and pH are all factors that can affect shelf-life and, ultimately, consumer appeal. “From the simple to the complex,” Kemin helps bakers solve flavor, color, microbial and profit-margin challenges to ensure bakery and snack products remain fresher for longer.

Schwartz points out the significance of health indicators as drivers of purchases. She notes that consumers are looking for shorter labels and, specifically, items that are meeting dietary constraints, such as low-carb, high fiber or made with whole grains.

“The need to increase fiber or reduce some of the chemical-sounding names from an ingredient label definitely requires a lot of expertise and work from an innovation standpoint. When you start removing some of these very powerful and significant functional ingredients, it can become quite a challenge for food and ingredient manufacturers alike,” she adds.

“This center expands our bakery footprint and introduces new capabilities made possible with the latest technology and a dedicated team of experts. Investing in and expanding our team of bakery experts was just as important as building this facility because we are working together with our customer-partners to develop a new generation of bakery products,” she concludes