Grain Improvers – Enzymatic composition for higher grain grinding efficiency and sustainability - FAQ

Question & Answer

1 What enzymes do you use? Ans: Grain Improvers (GI) is a patented composition of Celullase based Enzymes and Antioxidants. Depending on recipe and application it can consist of 4 to 9 Enzymes. See Grain Improvers Smart Spec for your reference. 2 What are the substrates? Ans: Grain shells’ Cellulose is the main substrate. 3 What are the optimal working conditions for them? Ans: Important working conditions:

1. GI – dry powder material, which is applied at the first tempering stage through a micro dispenser installed right after a wetting machine;
2. Standing time (can be adapted depending on water volume and GI dosage): 1st stage – 8-16 hours (minim 8 hours); 2nd stage 2-6 hours (preferably); 3rd stage 20-30 min. (additional humidification, preferably).
3. Enough water volume at tempering: difference between dry and wet grain before grinding should be not less than 2-3%;
4. No other than standard tempering conditions required.

4 What are the products (therefore a Mass balance)? Ans: When applying GI a number of positive effects on the quality of grinding products are stably observed: Own Enzymes (Xylanase, Esterase, Amylase etc.) from peripheral Endosperm parts go to Flour in big amount which improves Flour baking properties; More opportunities to optimize Mass balance of grinding products (Starch, Protein, Ash, own Enzymes and Vitamins):

1. Enrich Flour with own grain Enzymes and Vitamins;
2. Enrich Flour with peripheral Protein;
3. Preserve natural Starch structure and associated Protein because of mechanical grinding stress decrease.

5 Will it have positive or negative effect on flour quality and its baking performance? Ans: When applying GI Flour has better baking performance. Less mechanical stress allows to reach optimal ratio of entire and broken Starch granules in Endosperm and preserve their Protein capsule. Starch granules in entire Protein capsule hold water better, dough is less sticky and more elastic. Bread always has better volume. Better rheology is observed on appliances:

1. On Farinograph or Mixolab:

- Increase of Water absorption ability; - Increase of dough formation stability.

2. On Alveograph:

- Increase of stretch; - Increase of deformation energy. We observed that modern Mills (mostly equipped with 2 level roller machines) with shorter draining process and advanced grinding process system can reach high Flour yield (80%). However multiple passing of grinding products through the equipment in most of the cases gives negative effects to Flour quality: over destruction of Starch granules and associated Protein also peripheral Protein is too much fined and coagulating because of heat increase and high friction. Grinding products quality goes down (decrease of stability, deformation energy and stretch but elasticity increase). Because of that out of total 80% yield 5-8% of Flour has very poor baking properties. GI can help to solve this problem. 6 What is the dosage? Ans: Dosage of GI is indicated in the spec. Standard dosing is 200 gram/1 mt grain (can be adapted for special grain type/hardness). 7 Can there be an overdose of enzymes and what are the effects? Ans: When micro dispenser is correctly calibrated and in order overdosage and underdosage is not possible. This excludes underdosing as well as this can cause. There were overdosing cases due to mishandling but this didn’t cause any negative (besides economic) effects as grain Cellulose was more efficiently disintegrated. 8 Is there a dose difference when using the enzymes in durum and soft wheat? Ans: Enzymes’ activity for hard Wheat grades should be higher. We developed different GI recipes: Grain Improvers Smart for soft Wheat processing and Grain Improvers Durum for hard Wheat processing. Dosage of Grain Improvers Durum is higher – 200-250 gram/1 mt grain. Optimal dosage is checked/decided by technologist according to grain hardness. 9 What is the effect on energy saving per capacity 5,6,7,8,9,10 ton per hour? Ans: According to our experience with our customers average power saving is 5-12% due to decrease of grain grinding resistance, decrease of Ash content due to increase of Flour taking already at first systems also decrease of the load on pneumatic transport. Power saving effect depends on a Mill resetting with using GI according to grain hardness change evaluation. 10 What is the particle size of starch and protein in finished product? Ans: GI provide Starch granulometry optimization at grinding (Starch destruction AACC 6-8% max. and Sd-Matic – 10-20 UCD) and preserve associated with Starch Protein structure due to less mechanical stress. Depending on Endosperm structure often Starch granules particles size in grain center - ~50 µм, in the Endosperm center - ~25 µм and in peripheral part – 1-11 µм. 11 What is the effect when the standing time is longer than 12 hour or shorter than 8 hours? Ans: Grain standing time with Enzymes should be minimum 8 hours otherwise Enzymes will not work or will work partly. More than 12 hours is possible to stand (upto 24 hours) but important to avoid grain shells drying. 12 Do residual enzymes left in the bran have a negative effect on dough quality and baking properties such as stickiness? Ans: Enzymes composing GI completely spent during tempering and do not exist in the bran. Main GI component Enzymes of Cellulase disintegrate grain shells Cellulose which provide better bran digestibility also making the bran more hydrated. 13 Does the bran also remain softer after milling than use without enzymes? Ans: GI is making grain shells more elastic, soft and of more volume. This can be checked by Lab tests. 14 The wheat flour becomes whiter, does this also happen to the bran? Ans: GI do not contain chemical whiteners. The bran becomes lighter because of optical effect as their structure becomes softer and more elastic. 15 Is there an Ash reduction when using these enzymes? Ans: When applying GI Ash content goes down which provides more Flour of higher quality output. Ash content in the bran also decreases. 16 Can we see test results that have been made before and are there other mills that already use these enzymes? Ans: There are Mills in Russia and Kazakhstan which uses successfully our GI. 17 Use of enzymes as a processing aid (legitimacy, no labelling in the final product)? Food law (flour) & feed law (bran)? Ans: Grain Improvers consists of DSM bakery enzymes, which have passed multiple tests in Europe and have a complete set of documents on safety for people and animals. In the appendix, for example, a safety data sheet for one of the Enzymes. Therefore, Grain Improvers is a technological aid, like other DSM baking enzymes. DSM Enzymes and, accordingly, Grain Improvers fully comply with European Legislation. 18 Do you know whether we have to label the use of your enzymes in the flour or the final food product? Ans: Grain Improvers is a processing aid like other DSM baking Enzymes. Therefore, GI provides a Clean label. 19 The feed law is quite strict concerning the use of additives. Do you know whether we can sell the enzyme treated bran for feed purposes? Ans: Grain Improvers is not existing in bran. 20 Is it safe to use, e.g., for health gut? Ans: In any animal feed that contains bran feed manufacturers always add Enzymes (cellulases) to increase the digestibility of the bran which is safe and good for animals’ health. Therefore, even if the traditional technology is not followed at a mill and Grain Improvers get into the bran it will help digestibility of the bran when feeding animals. 21 Have you any safety data concerning the use of enzyme treated bran on animal health? Ans: Using of Grain Improvers is absolutely safe for people and animals as Grain Improvers are completely spent during grain tempering within 6-8 hours. To check this it is advisable to make an analysis of flour and bran for Ascorbic acid and Enzymes content after grinding with using Grain Improvers. 22 The enzyme activity was measured at 18° Celsius, what about wintertime? The grain might have a lower temperature. What is your experience? Ans: In winter, tests were carried out at a mill with a grain temperature of +5°C. At the same time, the grain was moistened with heated water at +40°C. The results of using Grain Improvers in winter completely satisfied the client. 23 Yield increase from a starting point of 75% upwards is easy, could be done mechanically as well (even up to 80% in the best mill). Ans: It is possible to get a yield of 80% mechanically, but this will lead to flour quality degradation (especially for ash content and baking properties). This will also lead to the increase in power consumption. The grain shells and Endosperm have a very strong peripheral bonds. That is why the max yield cannot be reached mechanically. Grain Improvers loosens the bonds between the shells and the endosperm making it easier to grind clean endosperm. 24 Does the increase in flour yield refer to the light or dark fraction? Ans: The sales price for the dark fraction is lower than the sales price for the light fraction. Grain Improvers allows you to maximize the output of flour with Ash content of 0.4-0.55%. At the same time the amount of flour with Ash content of 0.75% is reduced to a minimum or completely eliminated. Most often, this is the millers’ requirement to use Grain Improvers. Achieving this will results in a return of the investments for Grain Improvers. 25 Ascorbic acid: is the use necessary for the increase in yield? Is the use of asco responsible for the better baking results? Ans: Ascorbic acid (AA) does not increase the yield. AA is a part of Grain Improvers in the amount of 2-10 grams per 1 ton of grain. AA is used to acidify alkaline or neutral Ph water in order to increase the activity of enzymes during grain tempering. 26 What is the Ph of the water you are using? Ans: There is no AA in the final product, so it does not affect baking results. The baking properties of flour are improved because Grain Improvers provides stress-free grinding process that preserves the natural structure of Protein and Starch. The ascorbic acid is not added to influence the baking properties but for the functioning of the enzyme. 27 Increase in yield depends very much on the mill/grain/etc. Ans: The increase in flour yields really depends on the mill/grain, etc. Grain Improvers is an additional powerful auxiliary for solving multipurpose mill’s tasks that cannot be achieved by mechanical means only. For example: increase the yield while maintaining or improving Ash content and baking properties of flour. 28 Energy savings  How have you measured the energy savings? Are they assumptions or have you measured the effect? Ans: Measurement of power savings using the Grain Improvers was carried out in industrial tests on various mills using data from control devices permanently installed in the mills. For example, at a 380 t/d mill thanks to Grain Improvers energy costs were decreased by 7.27%. A Dutch mill got power saving at the Lab mill by 2 kW. 29 The economics are different if only the dark flour fraction is increased. Cost of the enzyme (€ p.kg) (at assumed 200-300gr / to of grain). What is the price of the enzyme? Ans: Grain Improvers always increases the fraction of light flour. The cost of using Grain Improvers for 1 ton of grain is on average 8-10 euros. These costs always pay off by increasing the yields of light flour (Ash content 0.4-0.55) and total yield, or by reducing the cost of grain (buying cheaper grain for grinding). Additional factors for improving the economy are a decrease in power consumption, an increase in productivity per day of work, an improvement in the baking properties of flour, an improvement in the eco-image of the mill, and the equipment wear and maintenance decrease. -By Ilham Hasan, Official Partner of Business development, Grain Improvers B.V. m: +994 51 777 1972 / +90 553 7305229, e: grainimprover@gmail.com, w: www.grainimprovers.com, L: Bronland 10 D, 6708WH Wageningen, The Netherlands Source: Email/KSU