Puratos launches UK-made sourdough | Food and Drink Technology
International baking and patisserie business, Puratos UK is launching British-made living sourdough, to meet the current and future tastes and needs of consumers. The new sourdoughs will be made at Puratos’ factory in Simonswood.
Demand for sourdough is growing, as consumers increasingly seek breads with natural ingredients and flavour. This growth in popularity for sourdough is supported by the findings of the 2020 Puratos Taste Tomorrow report, which showed that 21% of shoppers now look for sourdough in products. Sourdough is also of interest to people looking for more gut-friendly foods, as awareness of the importance of gut health is growing and some studies suggest sourdough may be easier to digest due to the slow fermentation time.
The launch of UK sourdough sees Puratos combine its years of fermentation expertise, with its up-to-date consumer insights, to develop products that are designed for the British consumer.
The sourdoughs are liquid, live and focused on delivering fantastic flavours, created with UK consumers preferences in mind. They can be developed to meet individual customers’ needs, with recipes and stories that will appeal to their consumers. This flexibility means Puratos customers can bring unique sourdoughs with a signature flavour to market. The sourdoughs are gluten free and made with flours milled in the UK.
James Slater, R&D director, Puratos UK, who has developed the new sourdoughs, says: “As leaders in sourdough, we have been helping both industrial and artisan bakers develop high quality sourdough for over 25 years, so we are really delighted to be able to now create sourdoughs here in the UK. The new plant demonstrates our belief that the future of bread lies in its past and that sourdough will play a central role in the development of the bread category.”
To help its customers develop and market winning sourdough breads, Puratos has conducted in-depth research to understand consumer perceptions and expectations of sourdough. The research has revealed that there are four clear actions that can be taken to grow the category: create more opportunities to try it, communicate the possible benefits, inspire consumers with ways to use sourdough, and offer different sourdough flavour profiles to appeal to a wider audience.
The launch of the local sourdough range and consumer research adds to the existing range and expertise that is unique to Puratos. As creators of the world’s only Sourdough Library, where sourdoughs from all over the world are collected and preserved, Puratos believes it has unrivaled insight into sourdough flavour profiles. This is complemented by its Quest for Sourdough, which encourages anyone with a sourdough starter to register details of their sourdough online and join a virtual community. Every year sourdoughs are selected from the online library to join the physical library at the Puratos Centre for Bread Flavour in St Vith.
Puratos has a number of existing sourdough products, including fresh and living sourdoughs for creating authentic sourdough breads and stabilised sourdoughs for adding a signature flavour to breads. The range also includes O-tentic active bakery blends for baking delicious Italian style breads with just four ingredients: flour, water, salt and O-tentic. These are complemented by Puratos’ industry-leading clean label improvers and Softgrains and Sproutgrains that add great taste and texture, as well as some additional health benefits.
As the interest in sourdough continues to grow, Puratos is investing to meet the UK’s sourdough demand and to ensure it can meet current and future sourdough needs.
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Source: foodanddrinktechnology.com