The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Ireks Format V2000 and Ireks Soft bread improver

Jonah's picture
Jonah

Ireks Format V2000 and Ireks Soft bread improver

Warmest greetings! I'm new here and find the conversations very interesting and enlightening.

I wonder if anyone knows what Ireks Format V2000 and Ireks Soft are made of. I'd like to know if they contain any harmful ingredients. I'm asking out of curiosity. I don't use bread improver or conditioner.  

Thanks and regards.

drogon's picture
drogon

You get:

Contains amongst others:
Wheat flour, dextrose, emulsifier, ascorbic acid and enzymes

although not the exact ingredients (this is Format V2000)

The 'soft' says:

Contains amongst others:
Acidity regulator, emulsifier, enzymes and ascorbic acid

your question is about harmful ingredients though - are they harmful? Probably not, but who knows in the long run - not enough studies have been carried out on that side of things - and who's going to independently do it?

Dextrose is a simple sugar, the emulsifier - who knows exactly what it is, same for enzymes (but they're usually to help with the breakdown of starch into sugars for the yeast - watch for L-Cystine, E920) ascorbic acid is Vitamin C (or a synthetic). It's there to act as a gluten strengthener. An acidity regulator is something  to regulate acidity/pH level - probably an alkali here. Hard to tell without the full data sheet.

These additives are mostly aimed at bigger commercial bakeries though - often used to offset varying flour qualities so to maintain consistency of the final product - personally, I think they have no place in bread (big commercial producers or otherwise)

FWIW: I'm a member of the real bread campaign and make bread to their guidelines - essentially no additives.

Welcome to the group!

 

-Gordon@moorbakes in Devon, UK

Jonah's picture
Jonah

Thanks Drogon. I've been googling and been wondering why the company hasn't been forthcoming with information on its products. 

I'm all for real bread. Cheers!

suave's picture
suave

Why would it ever be?  The composition of a proprietary mixture is a trade secret.

IceDemeter's picture
IceDemeter

Well, maybe because companies discovered that giving the ingredients but not the amounts did no harm to the "secret" nature of their proprietary formulae, and that it actually ends up being more profitable when they don't end up with end customers dying or getting extremely ill with allergic reactions to ingredients that they had no way of knowing were in there...  It generally ends up with better profitability when the public reviews and "free" publicity are from happy customers who are highly appreciative of a company allowing for informed purchasing, instead of the "free" publicity from lawsuits and court cases.

As a person with some serious allergies who comes from a family with serious allergies, companies who choose to disclose in detail ALL of their ingredients and process ingredients are ones that I (we) will do all I (we) can to support and promote.  Someone using soy lecithin in their spray for keeping a loaf from sticking to their pans and not putting it on the label could kill my niece; someone using aloe vera as "natural lubricant" on their equipment, or using carageenan in their formula without putting it on their label could kill me; and there are numerous other "little" things that don't need to be present in more than microscopic quantities to kill someone or make them seriously ill.  A simple disclaimer of "may contain" is enough to let us know that this is not a product that we can use, and can do no harm to the "proprietary" nature of their formulae.

One of the main reasons many people are going back to making their own breads is to try and control what the actual ingredients are in order to best safeguard their own health and well-being.  A company that chooses to not make the ingredients list (but not the quantities) easily accessible does not support that effort and should not be supported by purchasing their "mystery" product.

drogon's picture
drogon

... in the bakery business. All the big manufacturers of additives/improvers, etc. keep their real recipes secret or make the bakeries sign non disclosure agreements. Some of the additives are classed as "processing aids" too, sometimes called "white label", which means they don't need to be listed on the (consumer) product ingredients label because they are used in processing and the process of baking destroys them or renders them untraceable or something like that, That's what I'm more concerned about - at least when I see stuff I can make an informed decision.

However - you need never buy shop-make bread again, nor add weird stuff into your own breads, you'll find a million and 1 ways and recipes here.

Cheers,

-Gordon

Jonah's picture
Jonah

Thanks again Gordon. Have stopped eating supermarket bread for quite a while. Enjoying baking my own. This morning I baked a 800g sourdough. It turned out well. Saw your posts on sourdough. Amazed at how simple you made it sound. Cheers!

drogon's picture
drogon

.. make it as simple of as complex as you want.

I've found that for those that bake their weekly bread, they want it to be special, so put a lot of effort into it. I make (and sell) upwards of 200 loaves a week, so I need a process that's repeatable and easy. I also make sourdoughs mostly without big glossy holes because my customers don't like them that way. (However, despite my best efforts, my sourdough blondes do tend to be on the bubbly side and they're only 64% hydration. Ah well)

Cheers,

-Gordon

Jonah's picture
Jonah

Appreciate all your replies. I think companies have the civic duty to disclose to the public what their products contain. They can keep their formulae secret (how much of this and that) like coca cola, MacDonald's, KFC, etc. Some of the chemicals used might not be life threatening in the short term when eaten in small amounts. It's the cumulative effect that is worrying. Diseases such as cancer don't appear overnight. No thanks to Chorleywood.