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Flour bleaching agent is the agent added to fresh milled grains to whiten the flour by removing the yellow colour pigment called xanthophyll. It whitens the flour, which is used in the baking industry.
"Bleached flour" is "refined" flour with a chemical whitening (bleaching) agent added. "Refined" flour has had the germ and bran, containing much of the nutritional fibre and vitamins, [citation needed] removed and is often referred to as "white flour". Bleached flour is artificially aged using a "bleaching" agent, a "maturing" agent, or both.
Next, a chemical bleaching process is used to give the flour a whiter color. This bleaching step, usually with chlorine or benzoyl peroxide, destroys many of the original nutrients that were present in the flour. The final flour product contains a smaller portion of the original nutrients that were present in the seed prior to processing.
The flour used in white breads is often bleached further—by the use of flour bleaching agents such as potassium bromate, azodicarbonamide, or chlorine dioxide gas to remove any slight natural yellow shade and make its baking properties more predictable.
Skip the loaf of pre-sliced white bread during your next grocery trip. “There is minimal nutritional value in processed white bread (the one that comes in packages),” says Dr. Lopez-Jimenez.
A dough conditioner, flour treatment agent, improving agent or bread improver is any ingredient or chemical added to bread dough to strengthen its texture or otherwise improve it in some way. Dough conditioners may include enzymes , yeast nutrients, mineral salts, oxidants and reductants , bleaching agents and emulsifiers . [ 1 ]
Bleached flour is a white flour treated with flour bleaching agents to whiten it (freshly milled flour is yellowish) and give it more gluten-producing potential. Oxidizing agents are usually employed, most commonly organic peroxides like acetone peroxide or benzoyl peroxide , nitrogen dioxide , or chlorine .
Whole-wheat flour is used in baking of breads and other baked goods, and also typically mixed with lighter "white" unbleached or bleached flours (that have been treated with flour bleaching agent(s)) to restore nutrients (especially fiber, protein, and vitamins), texture, and body to the white flours that can be lost in milling and other ...