Now many of you on this list will know about this but I didn't, I've
never heard of Puratos either.
I'd like to see some reactions!
There are some 'sourdough' breads produced in Britain in small
commercial bakeries but while some of them are pleasant they never
have the same deep flavour as home-made sourdough bread. It never
occurred to me that they weren't using their own starters.
Mary
9/29/2006 - Bakery ingredients firm Puratos is to construct a new
sourdough plant in the US, designed to address increasing demand for
its ready to use fermented sourdough line, which has until now been
produced exclusively in Europe.
The New Jersey facility, which is expected to be completed by March
2007, will produce three of the company's four liquid products in its
Sapore sourdough line.
According to Puratos, moving production to the US is unlikely to
affect the products' prices for the time being, as the firm will need
to focus on reimbursing the investment.
The Belgian company first introduced its Sapore line into the US in
2001, although the products have been sold in the European market for
around a decade. The ingredients are designed to allow bread
manufacturers to save on time and costs when producing sourdough products.
With a distinct aroma and flavor, sourdoughs are traditionally
produced through a lengthy fermentation process, which has become
incompatible with the fast pace of commercial bread production.
Puratos claims its line of pre-fermented sourdough products allows
manufacturers to achieve the same result by directly adding the
ingredient to bread dough, thereby cutting time and costs, and
assuring a consistent quality and an ability to adapt easily to
volume fluctuations.
Manufactured by mixing wheat or rye flour with water and a selected
starter culture, the natural sourdoughs are available in powder or
liquid form and can be used in a variety of processes, including
direct dough, long fermentation and frozen processes.
Each product in the line uses a different starter culture, or
lactobacilli microoganisms that produce the lactic acid responsible
for giving each sourdough its distinctive flavor. This allows for the
use of different lactobacilli strains to attain flavors specific to a
region. For example, the L. sanfranciscensis, which is found only in
California, is used to produce the characteristically aggressive sour
taste that has made San Francisco sourdough bread famous.
The final product is available in four forms: powder, toasted powder,
pasteurized liquid and active liquid, which can be used in
applications including rye or wheat breads, sweet breads, pastries and snacks.
Puratos, which has currently seen more success from its liquid
products than its powdered products, said it hopes the construction
of the new facility will allow it to more than double its US sales of
the line by 2009.