Sodium stearoyl lactylate

White soft Bimbo bread ingredients: enriched wheat flour, water, sugar, yeast, salt, soybean and/or canola oil, enrichment (calcium sulfate, vitamin E acetate, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D3), Calcium propionate (preservative), calcium sulfate, datem, mono-and diglycerides, citric acid, soy lecithin, sodium stearoyl lactylate, wheat gluten, azodicarbonamide, ethoxylated mono-and diglycerides (http://www.bimbobread.com/Products/Soft-White/Default.aspx)

I love baking and experimenting in the kitchen but somehow, it doesn’t matter how hard I try, when I bake bread it never seems to get as fluffy, sweet and long lastingly fresh as the ones we buy. As this is so odd, because soposedly the bread we buy is “natural” and the manufacturers use the traditional ingredients to bake bread, I took a look at the ingredients of several different bread brands and this is one ingredient I found in every single one.

Sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate (sodium stearoyl lactylate or SSL) is a versatile, FDA approved food additive. It is one type of a commercially available lactylate. SSL is non-toxic, biodegradable, and typically manufactured using biorenewable feedstocks. Its molecular formula is C₂₄H₄₃NaO_6. It’s a white or cream-colored powder with a caramel odor and sweet taste.

This food additive, has several qualities desired by bakers: it makes the gluten in the bread stronger strengthening the dough and  increasing the volume of the loaf; it maintains the texture fresh as it stops the amylosestarch from going back to its crystalized form, expanding shell life; it acts as an emulsifier improving the capacity of water absorption as the surface tension between the water and the oils is reduced; and it makes the manufacturing of dough cheaper as lower quantities of fat have to be used as it disperses the fats in the bread, making it softer, and less sugar is needed as it already contains a sweet taste.

Qualities like being a fast and effective emulsifying agent and a foam stabilizer and fat and sugar replacer also make this product perfect for other uses in the food industry like icings and fillings, puddings, beverage mixes, cream liqueurs, sauces and even canned meats and pet food.

It truly is incredible how the food industry has foud compound wich are provben to be so helpful for their business, here I have found a picture to see the amazing effect of this additive, of the left a bread without SSL, on the right with it. Now you understand why our bread is so fluffy.