Application of Potassium Myristate as an Antifungal and a Dough Improving in Bread-Making

Surface-acting agents are used as bread improvers in bread making to increase the specific loaf volume. We focused on the use of fatty acid salts as surface acting agents and new food additives. Fatty acid salts are the main components of soaps and display antibacterial activity. In this study, we investigated the mold-proofing activity and baking property with fatty acid salts. We examined the influence of fatty acid salts with different lengths of carbon chains on the dough expansion ability and found that the dough expansion ability increased significantly in the presence of more than 5% potassium myristate (C14K) . No significant difference was observed in the dough fermentation abilities between the control dough and C14K-treated dough, indicating of the absence of any effect of C14K on the fermentation ability. The antifungal test showed that C14K effectively inhibited fungal growth. Thus, C14K may serve as a promising bread improver.