DCL Yeast (Alloa, Scotland) and Europe’s leading cream yeast specialist Algist Bruggeman (Belgium), both part of the Lesaffre Group, have extended the use of cream yeast away from its traditional plant baking use.

The benefits of cream yeast include hygienic handling, accurate dosing, improved mixing, more consistent fermentation, reduced foreign body risk and ultimately a better final baked product, says DCL.

The expansion of liquid handling brings these advantages to bakeries using more than 200kg of compressed yeast per week.

Known as Stabilised Cream Yeast, it is available in ‘high activity’ for typical UK processes, with a ‘slow’ alternative for longer, flavour-developing fermentation.

The cream yeast systems, available with returnable 300-litre or 1,000-litre containers, are now established in the UK, Belgium and Holland, and have the additional benefit of eliminating packaging waste, an increasing problem for bakers, says DCL. The liquid handling equipment can also be automated.