Papain’s role in biscuit production

Papain is an enzyme with high ability to hydrolyze proteins. It hydrolyzes proteins in acidic, neutral and alkaline environments. Papain is mainly extracted from immature papaya, which is cultivated in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and other places in my country. Papain can hydrolyze animal and plant proteins to obtain peptides and other substances. Therefore, papain has good applications in food.

Papain can act as a loosening agent in the biscuit production process. The action temperature of papain is 15℃~85℃, and the suitable pH is 7~8, so papain is suitable for the production and processing of most biscuits. Compared with other proteases, papain has high adaptability and is easy to transport, and papain can also be stored at room temperature.

As we all know, proteins are formed by the coiling and folding of peptide chains. The peptide chains are formed by connecting different types of amino acids in a specific arrangement, and adjacent amino acids are connected by peptide bonds. The action site of papain is the peptide bond. Papain hydrolyzes the peptide bonds of proteins to break the peptide chains, thereby relaxing the protein structure and reducing the strength of gluten. Papain can hydrolyze the protein in the dough into small peptides and amino acids, exposing the amino acids. When used in the production and processing of biscuits, it can make the surface of the biscuits golden and bright. In addition, after papain hydrolyzes the peptide bonds of the protein, the disulfide bonds in the protein still exist, so the broken peptide segments are rearranged under the pull of the disulfide bonds of each segment, so the biscuit layers produced in this way Clear, medium-sized holes, crispy texture.

In addition to the functions mentioned above, papain also has other uses. Since the molecular weight of oil and sugar is smaller than that of protein, during the dough mixing process, oil and sugar molecules will enter the protein molecules. At this time, adding papain to hydrolyze the peptide bonds will cause the oil and sugar that have entered the protein molecules to float on the surface, making the production process more difficult. The surface of the finished biscuits is oily and sweet, thereby reducing the amount of oil and sugar in the biscuit production process and achieving the purpose of reducing production costs.