Part-Baked Products - Minimally Processed Foods - page 160

and the risks are minimal at the bake-off points. The part-baked products have the
slogan “more fry and ready to service.” Because part-baked products are easily
prepared, the quality of the fi nal (rebaked) product is better preserved and war-
ranted. The long shelf life of these products allows stocks to be held and it can
eliminates under and over stocking. Products in different types and formats can be
produced without any extra work. In addition, before fi nal baking stage they can be
processed in different types, such as cut in half, fi lled. The part-baked products can
facilitate all day availability of fresh baked products. Consumers can buy a wide
variety of part-baked products, and stored them at home. These can be baked in a
domestic oven and can be consumed as fresh (Karao

ğ lu 2006a ; http://www.food-

tecprovider.com ) .

8.8 Disadvantages of Part-Baking Process

The main problem in producing part-baked products is the proper control of second
baking stage (i.e. optimum time and temperature). If the fi nal baking time is not set
well, the product quality can be deteriorated signifi cantly (Lallemand Baking
Update 2008 ). Another major problem for the part-baked bakery product is the for-
mation of crust fl aking. The crumb shrinkage arises during chilling and freezing.
The frozen superfi cial crust caused negative (traction) tangential stress and this
could explain the crust fl aking phenomena (Ribotta and Bail 2007 ). Crust fl aking
occurs after the part-baked product is fi nally baked after storing. Industrial practice
suggests that the freezing stage is responsible for this fl aking. If the bakery products
are not frozen, crust fl aking may not occur after the fi nal baking stage. Crust fl aking
may form even when cold storage is not applied to part-baked products. Adverse
storage conditions may magnify the crust fl aking but it cannot be considered alone
responsible for the fl aking phenomena. The main reason for crust fl aking is the
condensation of water vapor under the loaf crust during the cooling stage. The air
humidity level during proving and pre-chilling is shown to be the key factors for
controlling the fl aking. Low surface hydration levels could reduce crust fl aking level
(Lucas et al. 2005 ; Curic et al. 2008 ; Balestra 2009 ).
The part-baked products have revolutionized in the restaurant and hotel sector.
The consumption of partially baked products at home has not been grown as
expected. The consumers are reluctant to switch over oven baking at home. To elim-
inate this disadvantage, microwavable part-baked products have been developed for
home use as well as for some restaurants ( http://www.foodtecprovider.com ).
The part-baked products are expensive. For partial baking process, products need
to be baked twice. Therefore, in the production of part-baked products, energy con-
sumption is greater than that of the conventional process. Part baked frozen technol-
ogy demands about 2.2 times more energy as compared to the conventional bread
making process. It can demand more energy when the freezing process and frozen
storage is considered (Le-bail et al. 2010 ).