ABSTRACT
The white pan bread, a product standardized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, accounted for more than 90% of total wholesale bread production in United States until the middle of the past century. In the 1960s, however, an interest in bread varieties emerged as a result of customers’ nutritional concerns and growing demands for diversity of bakery foods. This trend brought about wheat, whole wheat, multigrain, high-fiber, low-calorie, low-salt, and cholesterol-free breads and cereal products [1,2]
The public also demanded premium, more highly flavored cereal foods. This desire was met by artisan breads, introduced by new bakery chains dedicated to manufacturing various types of breads, e.g., hard-crust French, Italian breads and new products including bagels, pretzels, and sweet-dough items (e.g., cinnamon rolls). In the production of the leavened products the application of sourdough fermentation was applied. The new types of bakeries were similar to retail outlets but were organized as franchises and their product selection was more restricted. Often they were combined with a snack shop or a sit-down restaurant operation. The baking operation was on the premises or limited to the bake-off step from frozen doughs, purchased from commercial manufacturers of frozen doughs. The in-store baking in supermarkets became common using frozen doughs. This operation met the demand for fresh bakery products [3,4].
