Phosphates in Cereals and Bakery Products

The cereal industry, in general, and the bakery industry in particular constitute the largest users of food phosphates. According to Stahl and Ellinger, leavening is the single most important application of phosphates in food processing in terms of phosphate tonnage used per year. ¹ Other important applications of food phosphates in cereal products are in starch modification (see Chapter 3), in acidity adjustment and buffering, in dough conditioning and enrichment, as growth promoting factor for yeasts in dough, and in preparation of quick-cooking cereal grains. Except for starch modification, covered in Chapter 3 under the section dealing with interactions between phosphates and carbohydrates, these uses are examined in the present chapter. Because the development of phosphates as leavening acids took place mainly during the period of 1930 to 1960, after which only a few improvements have been reported, there is little that can be added to the extensive and excellent discussions that Stahl and Ellinger, ¹ Ellinger ^{2 – 3} in two of his works, and later, Toy, ⁴ have contributed on this subject. The reader is encouraged to seek additional information in these sources. On the other hand, phytic acid (myoinositol hexaphosphate) and its salts, a major group of phosphorus-bearing compound in grains and legumes capable of strongly chelating divalent metal cations and, hence, of decreasing the boiavailability of essential elements, are discussed in the section dealing with nutritional aspects of natural and added phosphates.