Stealth Mission: Lowering Sodium in Baked Goods

By Kimberly J. Decker, Contributing Editor

Of all the headlines to come out of USDAs 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the most-attention-grabbing may be the recommendation that adults consume no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. Set against our current consumption of generally over 3,400 mg, thats a major adjustment. Yet, given the common knowledgewithin industry and among the publicthat our main sodium source isnt the salt shaker but the packaged foods weve come to love, the burden has thus fallen to manufacturers to ease our march into a new era of sodium austerity.

Manufacturers have come through with reductions in notoriously high-sodium categories like meats, soups, sauces and snacks. Bakery, meanwhile, hasnt exercised the same low-sodium passions. Baked goods represent a great challenge to sodium reduction," says Barbara Heidolph, principal, marketing technical service, ICL Performance Products, St. Louis, because of the range of baked goods and the functional roles that sodium plays.

Salt of the hearth

Grain-based products account for 36.9% of daily sodium intake, according to Heidolph. Both the 2010 Dietary Guidelines and the April 2010 Institute of Medicine report, Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States," identify yeast breads as the largest single food contributor to daily sodium intake, accounting for 7.2% of the total.

It is not necessarily the level of sodium per serving that causes this," Heidolph points out, but instead the number of servings consumed per day, as most breads are in the range of 100 to 200 mg of sodium per serving." Pizza crusts, tortillas and flatbreads clock in at a similar 100 to 400 mg per serving, and sweet baked goods at about 100 to 350 mg.

In yeast-leavened breads, whose one-and-only sodium source is often sodium chloride, salt behaves so functionallyfrom the moment you start mixing the dough to the time product spends sitting on the shelfthat lowering its levels inevitably creates complications.

Salt forges molecular bonds with flour proteins, improving dough strength, encouraging gas retention, and yielding impressive finished volume and palatable crumb structure. Due to its hydroscopic properties, salt makes the dough easier to handle, too," says Mariano Gascon, vice president, research and development, Wixon, Inc., St. Francis, WI,. Salt suppresses yeast activity, slowing fermentation and giving bakers more control over makeup. And salts ability to strengthen dough without compromising extensibility improves machinability.

Even in the oven, salt fixes the humidity in the dough," Gascon continues, maintaining surface moistness and producing a thin, crisp, well-colored crust. In dry climes, salt retains moisture to ward off staling.

Further, Heidolph notes, salt inhibits microbial growth, which is important for breads to some extent, especially when you consider distribution channels and the time bread often spends in the home kitchen."

But perhaps most noticeably, salt makes baked goods taste good. Salt provides flavor enhancement in baked products," says Linda Kragt, technical services manager, Morton Salt, Chicago. Breads without salt are often described as flat or insipid. In whole-grain products, salt can help mask bitterness. In sweet baked goods, salt helps modify an overly sweet taste. Additionally, salt imparts flavor balance to these products."

Chemical dependence

In chemically leavened baked goods, salt is also a primary source, accounting for anywhere from 30% to 80% of the total. In chemically leavened baked goods, such as cake products, muffins and pancakes, salt is highly functional," says John Brodie, technical services, baking, Innophos, Inc., Cranbury, NJ. Not only does it enhance flavor, but it balances out the sweetness of the product."

Aside from salt, chemically leavened baked goods contain other sodium sources, including leaveners and leavening acids whose namessodium bicarbonate, sodium acid pyrophosphate (SAPP), sodium aluminum phosphate (SALP), sodium aluminum sulfate (SAS)say it all. The preservatives sodium propionate, sodium diacetate and sodium benzoate may also contribute sodium, as do reducing agents like sodium metabisulfate, the emulsifier sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate and dough conditioners like sodium caseinate. Individually, these ingredients contribute small amounts of sodium; collectively, they can account for half the total.

In chemically leavened goods, sodium bicarbonate is the primary source of carbon dioxide gas," which gives volume and texture, Heidolph says. Leavening acids neutralize that sodium bicarbonate, controlling the rate of carbon-dioxide generation and timing of release. The leavening acids are not generally the largest sodium sources," she notes, but the reduction in sodium can be as much as 25% just by changing the leavening acid."

First things first

Manufacturers have pulled many rabbits out of their hats to perform sodium-reduction tricks, and the results are appearing on shelves. The bakery products category has shown an increase in the number of products making sodium-related claims over the last five years," notes Beth Arndt, director of research and development for the ConAgra Foods family, Omaha, NE, which includes Spicetec Flavors & Seasonings. This includes bread and bread products, sweet biscuits and cookies, savory biscuits and crackers, and baking ingredients and mixes. The cakes, pastries and sweet goods subcategory is the only baked goods subcategory that did not show a steady increase in products making sodium-related claims."

The bumper crop in new products notwithstanding, sodium reduction across bakery remains tricky. Which applications are trickiest to reformulate is a function more of formulation than of product type," Brodie says. Some will be sensitive to any change and have limited build-in tolerance. This can prove challenging, as not only might you need to change from a sodium- to a calcium-based leavening, but other ingredient changes and process changes may be needed, as well."

Manufacturers may need to account for higher levels of divalent cations or greater protein development by altering mix times or ingredient addition sequencing, Heidolph adds. In other applications, you may need to use smaller batch sizes or short process hold times, as the dough may be less tolerant to holding," she says.

Starting with salt

When salt contributes the bulk of a formulas sodium, theres not much more to do than chip away at its levels. Kragt points out that salt reduction in baked goods usually progresses toward an end point at which the product has a flat or bland taste." Thats when the salt alternative potassium chloride (KCl) can enhance saltiness in baked goods, as well as restore some of salts functionality." As a bonus, it boosts the products potassium levels, an increase the 2010 Dietary Guidelines explicitly encourages.

However, KCls saltiness is accompanied by a notoriously metallic aftertaste. Thus, Kragt describes its use as formula-specific." She cites 25% as a starting point for salt replacement, and if the taste is acceptable, try increasing the substitution level from there." KCl is particularly compatible with sweet-dough profiles or products that contain vanilla or citrus, she adds, while also noting that proof times may need to be reduced, as KCl doesnt inhibit yeast activity as much as sodium chloride does.

Baked-good manufacturers neednt ditch salt entirely, though. Many companies begin by looking at reducing process variation related to salt addition," Kragt points out. This is especially important in snack products where salt is applied to the surface with a salt dispenser. We advise our customers to check with their equipment supplier to learn about new models that can reduce salt-level variation."

Alternatively, they could use different salt types and grades. Product developers generally look for two assets: salts for the delivery of saltiness intensity, and salts that provide better adherence characteristics. A finer particle will adhere better, for example, whereas strategically chosen crystal forms can stretch the sensory impact of reduced salt levels. On an application like a cracker," Kragt says, what you dont want is premature dissolution of the salt on the product surface. Consumers want to see that salt particle. And in some cases, if it dissolves prematurely, you get dark spots on the cracker during baking."

Beyond low-hanging fruit

Depending on the sodium-reduction goals, Kragt says, manufacturers may be looking at several different approaches for getting to where that target is." After picking off what she calls the low-hanging fruit," manufacturers tackle the more-challenging sodium reductions to continue toward those targets."

Yet, thanks to its unique taste and functionality, salt itself is often the highest fruit to pick. By contrast, the comparative wealth of reduced-sodium and sodium-free leavening agents makes replacing ingredients like SAPP and sodium bicarbonate relatively turnkey. In chemically leavened products, we can lower the sodium, generally speaking, without impacting functional characteristics other than flavor," Heidolph says.

To reduce sodium in chemically leavened baked goods, she recommends a simple process. First, nix as much salt as possible while maintaining an acceptable taste profile. Then swap out the leavening acids for no- or low-sodium replacements, of which the choices abound. Most of these are calcium-based alternatives to the usual lineup: calcium acid pyrophosphate (CAPP), monocalcium phosphate, dicalcium phosphate. These can be used to reduce the sodium level up to 25%, depending on the starting formulation and which leavening acids you currently include," Heidolph says. In some cases, through efficiency with a low-sodium leavening acid, the overall leavening system levels may be reduced, leading to an overall decrease in sodium."

Brodie says hes achieved similar sodium reductions while adding a significant amount of calcium in pancakes, biscuits, waffles, cakes mixes, finished cakes and tortillas" using his companys sodium-free leavening. The product can replace SAPP on a one-to-one basis, he explains, as it has a neutralizing value of 72." (Neutralizing value, or NV, is a measure of the leavening acids available acidity, and is a determinant of the quantity needed to react with sodium bicarbonate to neutralize pH.)

If moving to calcium-based leavening acids isnt enough, consider a partial or total substitution of sodium bicarbonate with potassium bicarbonate. Although use levels for potassium bicarbonate are about 20% higher, the change can bring down sodium levels 40% to 55%. Because the potassium may impact flavor and sodium bicarbonate is so economical, we generally look at this as a third step," Heidolph says. For a product that is already formulated with zero-sodium leavening acids or no leavening acids, this may be the only way to get a significant reduction." Such is the case in some cookie and cracker-type products. Changes in these two groups of functional ingredients allow for salt to be added to the formulation at functional levels that still provide acceptable flavor profiles."

All in good taste

Flavor adjustment is part and parcel of sodium reduction, yet not all baked goods suffer the same flavor drawbacks from sodium reduction. For bread products that are incorporated into part of a mixed dish, such as pizza crust, or bread or buns consumed as part of a sandwich, the flavor impact may be offset by the flavor of the toppings or fillings," Arndt says. For products such as rolls that are often eaten alone, the changes in flavor due to reduction in formula salt are more apparent." Shes found that sodium reductions of 15% to 25% in yeast-bread formulas yield little to no detection or change in liking by consumers, and minimal impact on production." Reductions of as much as 35% sodium also produce little to no detection or change in consumer liking, along with what she says are manageable" production changes.

Gascon has found that, at least in chemically leavened baked goods, rich doughs fare better than lean ones. Fat helps you cover some of the taste difference," he says. But if the sodium reduction is too drastic, it will make the difference more evident." In sweet bakery, sugar, like fat, could mask or enhance some of the changes," he says, while possibly making the bread taste too sweet. Tortillas, which rely on high levels of leavening, may taste different after leavening replacement or reduction, in which case, a rebalance of the entire dough system flavor might be required," he says.

For topical applications, Gascon notes that KCl may be the only viable alternative. Unfortunately, the other alternatives for reducing sodiumyeast extracts, umami enhancers, coffee extracts, different particle sizes and shapes of saltdont work on topical application to give you the same taste with less sodium," he says. You would need to use a modified KCl where the off taste has been masked within the crystals."

Kimberly J. Decker, a California-based technical writer, has a B.S. in consumer food science with a minor in English from the University of California, Davis. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she enjoys eating and writing about food. You can reach her at [email protected].

Bakery Business

According to the London-based Business Insights report, Innovation in Bakery and Cereals" (Dec. 2010), the global bakery and cereals market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 3.4% during 2009 to 2014 to reach $423 billion in 2014. Further, the report notes, in Western markets, where the category has reached a level of saturation, it is especially important that manufacturers add value to their products to appeal to sophisticated consumers. Find the complete report in the Research Store at foodproductdesign.com/research-store.aspx.