Assessment of Enzymatic Improvers in Flours Using LC–MS/MS Detection of Marker Tryptic Peptides

Enzymatic
improvers are enzymes obtained from microbial or fungal
cultures, added as technical adjuvants to flour, with the aim of improving
the dough characteristics in bakery products. They are used in a low
ppm range and, being technical adjuvants, can go undeclared on the
label. Many types of enzymatic improvers are present on the market,
such as amylases, lipases, proteases, xylanases, glucose oxidases,
and others, each with a different function. Analytical methods capable
of detecting these enzymes are needed, particularly for bakery companies,
in order to monitor the quality of raw materials and to detect any
undeclared presence. In the present work, specific peptide markers,
obtained by enzymatic digestion, have been used to detect the presence
of enzymatic improvers by LC–MS/MS techniques. Promising results
were obtained for some enzymes acting on the carbohydrate fraction
(glucoamylase, glucose oxidase, xylanase) in which amounts as low
as 20 ppm could be identified in blind flour samples. For lipases
and proteases the method proved to be very effective in terms of specific
identification, even if less sensitive.