FDBusiness.com

Lesaffre, quick to break new ground, is now extending its offering on the fast-expanding sourdough market with a new brand and more comprehensive range, structured around 4 product families: starters, live sourdough, devitalized sourdough and sourdough-based preparations. With more than 20 product references in total, Lesaffre thus offers a wide choice of solutions with varied aromatic profiles to stimulate the baker’s imagination and creativity.

Eric Schubert, in charge of the Ingredients Department at Lesaffre International, explains: “The micro-organisms in sourdough, sourdough and products obtained from the fermentation process produced by Lesaffre are a direct extension of our expertise in the field of yeast, fermentation and breadmaking.”

The name LIVENDO is both vital and meaningful: it conjures up live products, sourdough and dough. The choice of dark red and a spiral to symbolize the mixing process makes the brand readily identifiable. The packaging has also been totally reworked to make the range more legible and appealing.

“The demand for sourdough-based products is steadily rising,” Eric Schubert continues. The reason is simple, consumers want authentic products that combine the notions of taste and well-being. So, it’s no coincidence that the baseline ‘More than taste, more reasons to love it’ was chosen to underline all the benefits of sourdough, but mainly naturalness, freshness and health.

Sourdough is a natural fermentation agent, which actively helps to enrich the sensory profile of bread, by developing its unique flavors and textures. However, aside from the aromatic aspect, it also delivers plenty of benefits. The crumb is more elastic, more open; water retention is improved, thus delaying the staling process. The lower pH helps to preserve bread for longer thanks to its antifungal effect. Nutritionally speaking, the addition of sourdough is highly positive: the glycaemic index of bread is reduced, which thus helps reduce the risk of diabetes, the bioavailability of mineral salts is improved, and the formation of acrylamide is greatly reduced during baking.

Antoine Baule, Chief Executive Officer of Lesaffre believes in the importance of sourdough strength: “At our facilities, we have an organoleptic scale to test characteristics of bread, in terms of visual, texture, mouthfeel, taste and everything else you can imagine. It is very important to address these new trends and niches. For example, for the natural bread, you often mix yeast and a starter to do the fermentation. It is important to do that and measure the taste, strength and aspect of the crust and everything else.”

Lesaffre was established in 1853and has 50 production plants operating in over 40 countries.