Ah, shelf life. One of the most important, yet challenging aspects of baking. Dr. Lin Carson and Dave Dahl dive into the two sides of the shelf-life coin: inhibiting mold and fighting staling. Lin suggests using ingredients like sugar or honey to make bread softer longer, while also inhibiting mold. But baking time and temperature are also key, with a fine line between too much or not enough moisture.
 
To find out more about reaching that optimal shelf life, Lin and Dave invite on Al Orr, vice president of sales and marketing at J&K Ingredients.  Al explains how their Soft-Bake product line uses a mix of concentrated enzymes to address starch retrogradation. Can you trust enzymes in your formulation? Al has the answer.
Moving on from extending shelf life, to extending the future of bread, Peter Reinhart stops by. America’s favorite bread guru and author of eight bread books, Peter discusses how a food over 6,000 years old must evolve to stay relevant, and what this means for the bread industry. It looks like whole grains, and fermentation will carry bread on to the next generation.  
 
Today’s show is made possible by J&K Ingredients. They are the suppliers of Soft Bake, a clean label solution to extend the shelf life of your product. To learn more, visit jkingredients.com
 
Follow Dr. Carson’s bread eating journey at EatBread90.com
 
Co-Host: Dave Dahl
Guests: Al Orr, J&K Ingredients,  Peter Reinhart
Bread eaten: Eat the Ball breads and  Bob’s Red Mills Spelt Bread, English Muffin Bread and 10 Grain Bread
Podcast Studio: Bigfoot Podcast Network

S1E9 Shelf Life: Making Your Bread Go Further

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The final results are in! After a loaf a day for 90 days, Dr. Lin Carson shares her final weight and levels. Did she gain 20 pounds like everyone thought she would, or was her hunch right that a diet full of bread isn’t as terrible as people think?
 
Dr. Carson did not gain a single pound during her bread journey, and she stayed healthy too! Joined by co-host Dave Dahl, Nutritionist Connie Evers and Janice Cooper from the Wheat Marketing Center, she goes over how the last 90 days impacted her nutritional profile. Connie breaks down areas like cholesterol, potassium, fiber and protein and why Dr. Carson’s bread diet worked.
 
To celebrate the end of the 90 days and the podcast, the cast celebrates with some bread and edible candles! Jonathan Steiner stops by to tell about his game-changing product: candles made from chocolate! Talk about innovation! 

 
Celebrating our last podcast of the season with Candies Candles on top of delicious Chocolate Brioche Buns

This wraps up Dr. Carson’s 90 days of bread. Dr. Carson reflects on the bread she’s eaten, the people she’s interacted with, and if she accomplished what she hoped to with this project. It’s the end of the first season of Pitching a Loaf as well—and what a season it’s been! There are still more bread questions to answer though, so until season 2, loaf you later!  
 
This podcast is sponsored by Bakery Concepts International—the makers of Rapidojet. This novel, high impact mixing and hydrating machine will change the way you mix forever! To learn more about how to make mixing more efficient, visit bakeryconcepts.net.
 
Read all about Dr. Carson’s bread eating journey at EatBread90.com!
 
Co-host: Dave Dahl
Guests: Connie Evers, MSc. Registered and licensed dietitian, Janice Cooper, Wheat Marketing Center Director and Jonathan Steiner, Candle Candies
Bread Eaten: Multigrain bread, flat bread, steamed buns, sourdough bread, and Pain Paillaise Sesame and Olive.
Podcast Studio: Bigfoot Podcast Network

S1E12 Eat Bread 90 Comes to an End! And the verdict is…

There’s no question about it: consumers want a cleaner and simpler label. Although many chemicals have GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) status from the FDA, people want them out of bread. But don’t worry bakers! There are natural alternatives out there to make your bread delicious as ever!  
 
Dr. Lin Carson asks co-host Dave Dahl why he started Dave’s Killer Bread with the tagline, “just say no to bread on drugs!” Another company who has put a lot of effort into cleaning up their label is the Orlando Baking Co. in Cleveland. With over 250 varieties of fresh and frozen bread products and nine production lines, they have removed bromate and ADA from their formulas. 
 
Orlando Baking Co.’s Meredith Long explains the challenges and rewards of going clean. She also talks about their unique probiotic breads, and why we should be eating them!
 
So just how did the bread industry evolve to need all these additives? Christy Griggs, a food scientist at Corbion, explains why products like DATEM, ADA and SSL are needed for large-scale bread production and what alternatives can be used instead.  With all these natural options, why not take advantage of them?
 
This episode is sponsored by our friends at Corbion. With their line of Pristine products,  you can clean up your label, get rid of ADA ingredients, and even bake organically. With all the backlash from the public today, why not use Pristine to clean up your label? Contact Corbion at corbion.com.
 
Follow Dr. Carson’s bread eating journey at EatBread90.com!
 
Co-host: Dave Dahl
Guests: Meredith Long, Orlando Baking Co., and Christy Griggs, Corbion
Bread Eaten: Dave’s Killer Bread 21 Grains and White Bread Done Right, Canyon Bakehouse 7 Grain, House of Maya Gluten-free Bread, and Orlando Baking Co. Seed'licious, Purple Wheat Raisin and Honey Wheat.
Podcast Studio: Bigfoot Podcast Network

S1E11 Cleaning Up Your Label and Baking Organically

Could sourdough be the lean, clean savior of the bread industry? Dr. Lin Carson thinks so. Along with Dave Dahl, she addresses what many bakeries may be experiencing: as delicious and popular as sourdough is, it can be a headache! Between time, scheduling, need for skilled labors, and the cost of destroying a starter, it’s no small feat. But not an impossible.  
 
Joining us today are two sourdough experts, who have different approaches to putting sourdough on the shelves. One is Doug Michael, passionate baker and owner of Columbia County Bread and Granola. His company makes a flourless sourdough sprouted bread that is naturally leavened. From grain to oven, their process takes 36 to 48 hours. However, it has a number of health benefits, such as a low glycemic index and easier digestibility. And of course, bursting with flavor!  
 
Still, not every bakery has time for this process. So Jeff Nelson, vice president of sales at Brolite, shares his solution. High-speed production doesn’t have the floor space or time for long fermentation. So they sell sours as dehydrated and shredded products, several that are naturally produced. Jeff explains how to make this work for your product line. Because after all, we all need a little sourdough in our lives! 
 
This podcast is sponsored by Brolite Ingredients. With their specially fermented sours and cultured flavors, bakers are able to use these solutions to find a flavor profile that best suits their needs. Find out more about their products at bakewithbrolite.com.
 
Follow Dr. Carson’s bread eating journey at EatBread90.com
 
Co-Host: Dave Dahl
Guests: Doug Michael, Columbia County Bread and Granola, Jeff Nelson, Brolite 
Bread eaten: Rotella’s Italian Bakery Biscuit Bun, Cranberry Grain Bread, Blueberry Bread and Brioche Bun, whole wheat bread, raisin bread, and Ancient Brands Grain Whole Grain Emmer Bread and Whole Grain Bread.
Podcast Studio: Bigfoot Podcast Network

S1E10 Sourdough: Changing Our Taste in America

Pitching a Loaf is on the road! Today’s episode comes to you from the Johnson and Wales International Bread Symposium. Dr. Lin Carson and co-host, David Deblauwe of Puratos, bring on founder Peter Reinhart to learn just why the world needs an academic platform to discuss bread.

Bread is a global issue, important in so many ways. However, it’s also under attack. Reinhart started the symposium to bring bakers, historians and scholars from around the world to look at the bigger picture and “talk micro on macro issues.”

One huge issue: sprouted grains and their impact on the future of bread. Sprouting increases the flavor and nutritional value of bread, but many industrial scale bakeries hit a wall sprouting their grains. Yet our next guest has an innovative solution. Central Milling’s Nicky Giusto shares how they are tackling the issue with their frozen sprout mash.

By sealing and freezing sprouts at the optimal point, the enzymatic process slows to a stop, allowing for a drastically different shelf life. Nicky talks about how to uses this mash in your formulas, why sprouted bread is so beneficial and his great grandfather’s experience with sprouting grains.
 
This episode is sponsored by Puratos. They are the suppliers of Soft Grain, a range of pre-cooked sprouted grains and seeds in sourdough. To learn more about their product, visit puratos.us.com

Follow Dr. Carson’s bread eating journey at EatBread90.com

Co-host: David Deblauwe
Guests: Peter Reinhart, Executive Director of the International Bread Symposium, and Nicky Giusto, Central Milling. 
Bread Eaten: Whole Grain Bread; Whole Grain Baguette; King’s Kitchen Rye Bread, Ciabatta, and Egg Challah; Puratos Whole Grain Roll; Jim Little’s Croissant, Bob’s Red Mills Spelt Bread, 10 Grain Bread and English Muffin Bread.
Podcast Studio: Bigfoot Podcast Network

S1E9 Shelf Life: Making Your Bread Go Further

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