Baking & Snack - June 2022 - 26

SOSLAND PUBLISHING
years
Health guidance
has sent fats and
oils suppliers on an
innovation journey from
animal fats to PHOs to
customized shortenings.
©JPC-PROD - stock.adobe.com
tion, " Dr. Yin said. " The gluten shortage, for example:
gluten by itself is very expensive. We're not even talking
about the availability issue, but it's just not sustainable in
this crisis. People are looking at enzymes as a sustainable
and cost-saving solution. "
With the commercialization of enzymes bakers have
been able to move from emulsifiers to strengthen dough,
soften dough and even extend shelf life, where the baking
industry continues to reach new heights.
Changing the game with ESL
Extended shelf life (ESL) radically changed the way the
baking industry did business. The research and development
team at Interstate Bakeries Corp. (IBC), Kansas
City, Mo., led by Theresa Cogswell, was able to develop
a proprietary enzyme blend that enabled them to double
Wonder Bread's shelf life to seven days from four. Ms.
Cogswell recalled that no one was quite sure what to do
with such a revolutionary product when bread previously
barely lasted longer than the daily paper.
" No one at IBC knew how to implement it, " said Ms.
Cogswell. " The execution of ESL Wonder Bread came from
Walmart. They no longer had to stack bread by the day of
the week; they could now mass merchandise the bread. "
In an interview with Milling & Baking News, then
President and Chief Executive Officer Chuck Sullivan
laid out the benefits for retailers:
" Retailers, including Walmart, define full service as
a full shelf. The positive side for the retailer is that the
shelves remain full all the time, as opposed to the short
shelf life we had before. "
While speaking to analysts in an investor call on
September 19, 2001, Mr. Sullivan showed that ESL had
reduced stale returns from 12% to 15% to 6% to 7%. He
also elaborated on how this innovation would impact
26 Baking & Snack June 2022 / www.bakingbusiness.com
routes, deliveries and operational efficiencies.
" It essentially reduces the amount of product we have
to pick up; it increases productivity of routes; it results in
fewer routes, " he said.
Ms. Cogswell remembers the room full of maps with
pins all over to show those different delivery routes.
" The guys would be in there repinning the routes because
they didn't have to deliver bread as often, " she said.
Ms. Cogswell recalled that the company saved $60
million that first year of ESL Wonder Bread. Despite the
pushback she received (she remembered being told multiple
times she would single-handedly destroy the baking
industry), Ms. Cogswell's passion project changed
the game on the way bread was not only merchandised
but produced and delivered.
" I never understood the bakery business model, " she
said. " We would bake 100 loaves of bread and intentionally
be okay with losing three to five loaves due to staling
because we couldn't sell them by the expiration date. ...
" I credit my mother with this achievement because
she never wasted anything, and I used to look around at
all the waste and stales in the bakery and wonder, 'Does
it really have to be this way?' "
And that's the big question that every innovator asks
themselves and the industry. The answer carries the baking
industry into the future of taste, nutrition and better
operations.
This year marks 100 years since the founding of Sosland
Publishing Co., the publisher of Baking & Snack. To mark
the anniversary of a century of providing food industry professionals
timely information, news and commentary, we are
publishing a series of articles to celebrate the past, present and
future of the people and industry that feed the world.
*
http://www.bakingbusiness.com
Baking & Snack - June 2022

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