Efficacy of three organic Compounds as Antimould Agents in Bread under Humid Tropical Weather

Abstract

The efficacy of three organic compounds - sodium acetate (SA), ascorbic acid (AA) and citric acid (CA) as well as combinations of SA/AA and CA/AA as antimould agents in bread when stored at ambient temperature (280C) under humid tropical weather was investigated. SA, CA and AA were added as sole agents at 0.08, 0.09, 0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40, 0.50 and 0.60% rates of inclusions. The combined forms consisted of a fixed concentration of AA (0.30%) added to the varied concentration of SA (SA/AA) and CA (CA/AA). A 0.00% inclusion was prepared to serve as control. A mean shelf life of 5 days was observed for the control samples, while the values for samples containing SA, CA and AA at 0.30% concentration were 13, 11 and 9 days respectively. The effect of SA/AA and CA/AA at 0.20% concentration gave a mean shelf life of 9 days each. The results obtained showed that shelf life of sample with SA and CA was significantly different (P<0.05) from that of AA, SA/AA and CA/AA. A decrease in specific loaf volume (SLV) was observed for all the samples except samples containing AA. SA and CA gave a decrease of 50% and 28% respectively in SLV at 0.30% concentration, while AA showed an increase of 12% in SLV at the same concentration. These results suggest that SA is an effective anti-mould agent in bread, but its efficacy was not enhanced by combination with AA. AA functioned more as a flour improver than as an anti-mould agent. The decrease in loaf volume observed when SA or CA was used singly was considerably improved when this compound was combined with AA.


[IJARD Vol.3 2002: 156-161]