What is a flour treatment agent

Flour treatment agent is a kind of food additive to whitening flour and improving the quality of baked products. The freshly ground wheat flour is yellowish because it contains some pigments such as carotene  (Thailand food Ingredient supplier) , and the dough is cohesive and not easy to process or bake. However, flour will slowly whiten after storage and go through the process of aging or ripening, which can improve its baking properties. However, under natural conditions  (Thailand food flavour supplier) , this process is quite slow. If it matures naturally, it requires a large number of warehouses, and it is not well preserved and is prone to mildew and deterioration. Chemical treatment can accelerate these natural maturation processes, enhance the fermentation activity of yeast and prevent aging. These chemically treated substances are flour treatment agents.

The flour treatments specified by National food standard are L-cysteine hydrochloride  (Thailand food flavour wholesale) , ascorbic acid, azoformamide, magnesium carbonate  (Thailand food flavour supplier) , and calcium carbonate (including light and heavy calcium carbonate). The substances commonly used in the past are benzoyl peroxide, potassium bromate and azoformamide, which can oxidize and bleach the flour to a certain extent, and they also have a certain maturation effect.

Generally speaking, the use of flour treatment agent in flour processing can save the storage space in flour production, improve the baking performance of flour and the color of bleached flour. However, due to the different requirements for flour processing, storage and use in different countries, the varieties of flour treatment agents approved for use are different. A typical example is that in 2011, China banned the use of benzoyl peroxide and calcium peroxide as flour treatment agents, while the United States allowed benzoyl peroxide as flour treatment agents.