Why do you add acids to baked goods? For chemical leavening, right? Well, that’s not all they are good for. Look at fumaric acid. With this ingredient, a little goes a long way. This is an acid with a high acidification power and neutralization value of 145. This means you can use less of it for chemical leavening or lowering pH. So, it’s a cost-effective choice.
Fumaric acid is clean label
This is an organic acid. So, if you’re looking for an effective alternative to ingredients like MCP, SAS, SALP or SAPP, it is a great solution.
What else can you use it for?
It is widely used in baked goods, dessert mixes, confectionery and beverages. Here are a few specific examples:
- Bread: Adds a pleasant flavor in rye and sourdough breads and helps improve quality
- English muffins: helps improve dough machinability and porosity
- Tortillas: acts as a mold inhibitor, dough machinability improver and shelf life extender
- Pie fillings: improves smoothness and optimum gelation by extending critical cook time
- Frozen/refrigerated doughs: preserves leavening power to help with proofing and baking
In food and bakery products, it has the following functions:
- Strong buffering capacity around pH 3.0
- Antimicrobial activity
- Acidulant and acid leavening properties
- Flavor enhancing
- Low water solubility (0.7 g/100 ml water at 30oC)
