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Bread is made by mixing and kneading flour, water, salt and yeast and baking the dough following fermentation.
To maintain the softness for as long as possible and to make bread dough suitable for machine production, emulsifiers are used but not only for emulsification.
It is also used as a dough modifier (or “dough conditioner”), tolerable to mechanical force, by modulating the proteins in wheat flour.
These results in a dough that is tolerant to mixing, shows better retention of CO₂ produced during leavening, and, when baked, yields a product with increased volume and finer texture.
Emulsifiers used for shelf life extension, termed “crumb softeners” or “anti-staling agents”, assert their effects by forming water-insoluble inclusion complexes, yielding a considerably softer crumb structure, retard starch crystallization or retrogradation which is responsible for staling.
Emulsifiers used for this application include distilled monoglycerides based on fully hydrogenated fats, diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides (DATEM), and propylene glycol mono- and diesters of fat-forming fatty acids.

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To summarise, the major effects of emulsifiers on bread production are as follows ;

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· to make a less-sticky and elastic dough that is easy to handle

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· to increase the dough resistance to mechanical force to soften and create easy raising.

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· to make smooth bread of good eating quality, and to maintain the softness.

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EMULSIFIERS