title: Shelf life and safety concerns of bakery products--a review.
abstract: Bakery products are an important part of a balanced diet and, today, a wide variety of such products can be found on supermarket shelves. This includes unsweetened goods (bread, rolls, buns, crumpets, muffins and bagels), sweet goods (pancakes, doughnuts, waffles and cookies) and filled goods (fruit and meat pies, sausage rolls, pastries, sandwiches, cream cakes, pizza and quiche). However, bakery products, like many processed foods, are subject to physical, chemical and microbiological spoilage. While physical and chemical spoilage limits the shelf life of low and intermediate moisture bakery products, microbiological spoilage by bacteria, yeast and molds is the concern in high moisture products i.e., products with a water activity (a(w)) > 0.85. Furthermore, several bakery products also have been implicated infoodborne illnesses involving Salmonella spp., Listeria monoctyogenes and Bacillus cereus, while Clostridium botulinum is a concern in high moisture bakery products packaged under modified atmospheres. This extensive review is divided into two parts. Part I focuses on the spoilage concerns of low, intermediate and high moisture bakery products while Part II focuses on the safety concerns of high moisture bakery products only. In both parts, traditional and novel methods of food preservation that can be used by the bakery industry to extend the shelf life and enhance the safety of products are discussed in detail.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Macdonald Campus of McGill University, 21,111 Lakeshore Road, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec H9X 3V9, Canada. Jsmith@macdonald.mcgill.ca
authors.forename: James P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Daphne Phillips
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Daifas
authors.forename: Wassim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: El-Khoury
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Koukoutsis
authors.forename: Anis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: El-Khoury
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001272:Atmosphere; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D005516:Food Microbiology / Q000592:standards; D005519:Food Preservation / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D012449:Safety / Q000592:standards; D013696:Temperature; D014481:United States; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D014867:Water