Sternchemie Tests Show "Sunflower Lecithin is an Attractive Alternative to IP Soy for Baked Goods"

The goal of testing was to identify the commonalities and differences between soy and sunflower lecithin in various baked goods. Different lecithin concentrations were tested in three types of baked goods - bread rolls, freeform white bread and sweet tin loaf.

18 May 2012 --- Lecithin offers key benefits in baking: As an emulsifier, it makes dough more amenable to machine runability, by binding powders to fat and water better. By homogenising the distribution of fat, it allows reduced fat content, since without lecithin it would be necessary to use more fat to get a good dough consistency.

Soy lecithin is usually used to for these purposes, but is coming under criticism due to the rapid increase in cross-contamination between GMO and GMO-free IP soy. Through tests in its own pilot bakery, Sternchemie has now demonstrated that in many applications, sunflower lecithin can be a very good alternative to soy lecithin.

The goal of testing was to identify the commonalities and differences between soy and sunflower lecithin in various baked goods. Different lecithin concentrations were tested in three types of baked goods - bread rolls, freeform white bread and sweet tin loaf. “In a comparison of the influence of soy and sunflower lecithins, overall testing clearly shows that both provide the same results,” reported Janine Binder, applications technologist at Sternchemie.

A key factor is the very similar composition of fatty acids, with sunflower lecithin having slightly more of the nutritionally beneficial unsaturated fatty acids oleic acid and linoleic acid. Sunflower lecithin is also equivalent to IP soy in phospholipids. Its phosphatidylcholine (PC) content is at a similar level to soy, while it has slightly higher amounts of phosphatidylinositol (PI) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) this is an advantage for the baking industry, since PI has higher baking activity.

Compared with soy lecithin, raw lecithin from sunflower oil has higher proportions of substances that affect quality, which varies greatly depending on the production method. This makes it necessary to process the lecithin before use, so standardization is very important. “We process the lecithin to a higher degree than usual in conventional standardization. For example, we also remove the small amounts of processing residue left over from oil extraction,” explained Michael Heidland, Manager Business Unit Lecithin at Sternchemie.  “With our long experience in lecithin production, we can process raw material of almost any quality. That is an important factor in our broad product line.” Products range from standard liquid lecithin to sunflower lecithin on carrier to pure lecithin powder.

Source: Sternchemie