Diacetyl tartaric acid mono-diglycerides, abbreviated as DATEM, was sold as a dough conditioner in the United States as early as 1948, and was used as a food emulsifier in bakery products after 1976, while in Europe in the 1960s, DATEM was not only used in bakery products, but also in a variety of food products such as confectionery, margarine, and so on.

Structure and properties of DATEM

DATEM when used with saturated fatty acids it is a white or yellowish powdery solid with a melting point of 45°C, when used with unsaturated fatty acids it is a yellow paste or viscous liquid.

The common state in China is milky white powder or granular solid, weakly acidic pH value, pH value of about 4, melting range of about 45°C, HLB value 8.0, with a special acetic acid odor, able to be dispersed in hot water, miscible with oil and grease, soluble in ethanol, propylene glycol and other organic solvents.

The structural formula is: CH₂OC=OCHOCO CH₃CHOCO CH₃COOH-CHOH-CH₂OCO(CH₂)16CH₃.

Because DATEM is highly hygroscopic, the fine powder is especially prone to caking in summer when it is hot and humid (or improperly stored), and is usually made into granules or fine powder mixed with 20% anti-caking agent.

Characteristics of DATEM and its comparison with

Comparison with commonly used emulsifiers

DATEM has the functions of emulsification, stabilization, anti-aging and freshness preservation. It is used in products such as bread, pastry, cookies, cereals, extruded foods, cream, hydrogenated vegetable oils, phytolipids, soups, and pigment concentrates.

• Improve emulsification, prevent oil-water separation, used as emulsifier and dispersant;
• Increase the gluten of dough, increase the volume, improve the structure, soft texture, prevent aging;
• Forming complexes with starch, preventing starch dissolution and loss, improving the pasting characteristics of starch;
• Used in cream, can make the cream soft, smooth and delicate;

The largest international market for the use of emulsifiers is the bakery industry, and the most commonly used emulsifiers in bakery products are sodium/calcium stearoyl lactylate (SSL/CSL), diacetyl tartaric acid mono-diglyceride (DATEM), molecularly distilled monoglyceride (GMS), lecithin, and so on. They can interact with gluten proteins to form complexes, connecting gluten molecules with each other to form a macromolecular gluten network, enhancing the elasticity, toughness and gas-holding properties of the dough, increasing the volume of the bread, and improving the organizational structure of the bread. It can also interact with straight chain starch to slow down the aging of the product. When the flour quality is very good and the operation is perfect, the volume of bread made by DATEM is bigger than other emulsifiers.

Comparison of data on commonly used emulsifiers

Application of DATEM in various kinds of food products

1.DATEM in bread application

The most basic function of DATEM is that when it is mixed into any kind of yeast-fermented wheat flour-based dough, it can quickly and completely combine with the hydrated gluten bundles to make the gluten network stronger, and at the same time more extensible and elastic, and so help to increase the air holding capacity, so that the resulting dough has a network of bubbles with a small size of pores, a strong bubble wall and good extensibility, and because of the increase in the dough’s extensibility, it no longer reacts to the length of kneading time, but is no longer a challenge to the kneading time. Because of the increased ductility of the dough, it is no longer particularly sensitive to the length of kneading time. Moreover, there is a positive correlation between the added amount and the increase of air holding capacity.

When the protein content of the flour is insufficient or the quality is lower than ideal, adding DATEM helps to stabilize the dough at the end of the normal rise and gives the dough a reasonable oven rise, and the bread after baking has a higher specific volume and a more proportional appearance, and the general addition amount is 0.1-0.3% of the flour amount.

In the case of high-quality bread flour as a base, DATEM plays a greater role in improving air holding capacity, especially in the transfer of low-density doughs from rising to baking and in the early stages of baking.

For breads requiring a long period of rise processing, DATEM provides rise stability between 2 and 16 hours at low rise temperatures, and stabilizes under prolonged and frequently changing rise conditions.

DATEM is used in whole wheat breads and breads with nuts, and since gluten particles, wheat fragments and nuts can disrupt the dough’s stomatal network, one way to overcome it is to add wheat gluten to the formulation, another is to use DATEM, and a better way is to mix the two. However, DATEM has less effect on the properties of starch-water mixtures and thus does not directly change or reduce aging or aging rate.

Overseas, in low auxiliary or crisp breads, bakers will prefer to use a bread conditioner containing DATEM to obtain maximum air holding capacity. In bread DATEM has synergistic effect with oxidizing agents vitamin C, ADA and enzymes, and the recommended dosage is 0.2% to 0.6% by weight of flour.

2.Application of DATEM to cookies and puffed snack foods

DATEM can emulsify fat, emulsified fat is easy to be absorbed by the gluten, can improve the mechanical processing performance, thermal expansion in the baking process, so that the protein is easy to foam, increase the volume, and with the gradual solidification of the baking and shaping, so that the central layer of the structure of the formation of spongy sponge-like loose body, improve the product looseness and taste, and to prolong the shelf life. When adding 0.12% to 0.5% DATEM, it can reduce the amount of fat in cookies by about 20%, and achieve good health care and edible effect.

Add 0.2% ~ 0.5% DATEM in puffed food, can play a good emulsification and lubrication, reduce the extrusion pressure, reduce the wear and tear of the equipment, the production of smooth surface, fine pores, crisp texture of the puffed material, reduce the hygroscopicity of the product, to extend the shelf life.

3.Application of DATEM in cake

Because the foaming property of DATEM is very good, the interfacial film formed can make the air bubbles stable and uniformly distributed, so that the cake with uniform honeycomb and thin wall can be produced. If fat is added to the formula, the fat can be dispersed more finely and evenly under the action of DATEM, and the fine fat particles make the cake taste better and softer. Especially in one-step cake making, emulsifiers must be added to make a good sponge, and DATEM, SSL, GMS are good choices.

4.Application of DATEM in instant noodles and other crusts

After adding 0.5% DATEM, the appearance of noodles is improved significantly, the whiteness is increased, the anti-browning property is improved, the gluten is improved, the cooked break rate and cooking loss are reduced, the taste is smooth and the degree of adhesion is reduced. Moreover, it can make instant noodles have better rehydration, prevent aging, and it is not easy to swell and dissolve the cooked noodles in the soup.

In dumplings, wontons, spring rolls, siu mai and other skin products, the addition of DATEM, CSL/SSL, etc. can improve the elongation of the dough and resistance to mechanical processing, improve the texture and luster, and prevent aging and deterioration.

5.Application of DATEM in frozen noodle products

Frozen dough technology for bread has been developing rapidly in China in recent years, especially the popular chain store operation in the bread industry.

The research of frozen dough is mainly in three aspects: freezing process, yeast and additives.

Adding a certain amount of additives to the dough is also an effective measure to solve a series of problems in frozen dough. Studies have shown that certain additives such as DATEM, SSL, gluten, VC, alginate, etc. applied to frozen dough have the effect of maintaining dough properties and ensuring the volume and quality of bread.

In the freezing process of quick-frozen dumplings, soup dumplings and other products, the emulsifier DATEM can reduce the free-flowing water and act with starch to reduce the degree of crystallization of starch molecules, and gluten proteins to complex the formation of a new complex, thus improving the low-temperature stability of the frozen food, controlling the size of the ice crystals in the noodle products, reducing the rate of cracking of the product, so that the product glossy surface is smoother, the maneuverability is improved, the yield rate It improves the cooking resistance, reduces the phenomenon of muddy soup after cooking, makes the products taste better and prolongs the shelf life.