Quality and safety characteristics of bread made from frozen dough

During the last few years, consumers and buyers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of safe and high quality food products. Interest becomes greater since new products are introduced to the market and modern technologies are being used even in the production of traditional or conventional food products (use of freezing in bakery products). The objective of this work is to examine the factors, which influence the safety and quality characteristics of bread made from frozen dough. A common bread formula consists of wheat flour, water, active dry yeast, salt, sugar, margarine and ascorbic acid while the breadmaking procedure usually involves dough preparation, freezing, thawing and baking. For each ingredient, the main safety and quality parameters, the storage conditions and the requirements for specific use are presented and the potential microbiological, chemical or physical hazards throughout the breadmaking procedure are determined according to HACCP procedure. Finally, consideration is given on how raw material/dough characteristics (water content, pH, initial spore count etc.), and processing parameters, such as freezing time, temperature and duration, baking time and temperature affect bread quality and how they can ensure the safety of the final product. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.