ABSTRACT
Since the dawn of civilization, bread has been a central part of the human diet. Then, and until recent times, most bread was eaten fresh because the raw materials were ready available. In modern society, industrialized bakeries have overtaken domestic breadmaking and outcompeted many small bakers; thus, most bread are bought in supermarkets and are expected to stay fresh for several days, which of course has put extra demands on bread factories for longer products shelf life. The preferred way to handle this problem has been to add large amounts of chemical preservatives, such as propionate and sorbate, to bakery products. However, public demand for more natural foods, without synthetic preservatives has increased in strength since the early 1970s and has forced bread factories to minimize the use of preservatives.
