Scaling Sourdough: Bringing Italian Tradition to Modern Manufacturing with Dried Sourdough Concentrates
- Think Ingredients
- 15 minutes ago
- 5 min read
From small bakeries to commercial production, sourdough's popularity shows no signs of slowing down.
The Rise of Sourdough
Consumers worldwide continue to seek out the delicious flavour, distinctive texture, and artisanal character that sourdough brings to baked goods. Once considered a specialty product found only in small bakeries, sourdough has grown to become a mainstream bakery trend appearing in everything from sandwich breads to pizza crusts and crackers.
Traditional sourdough production requires time (often up to 72 hours of fermentation), expertise, and constant monitoring. Maintaining a live starter can be very labour intensive, especially in large-scale production. Even small changes in fermentation conditions such as:
pH
Temperature
Humidity
Time
Oxygen levels
Sugar source and feeding schedule
Even small changes in these variables can impact the final product.
For large manufacturers, maintaining a consistent starter can be challenging, making it difficult to deliver a consistent product batch after batch. In addition, the long fermentation times associated with traditional sourdough production are labour intensive and can complicate production scheduling. Sourdough doughs are also typically high-hydration and often require different processing techniques and specialized equipment, making them more difficult to handle in conventional production environments.
With all these factors, manufacturers are faced with the challenge of balancing authenticity with the demand required to produce thousands of units per day.
One commercial bakery was beginning to experience these challenges firsthand. when they decided to launch a new sourdough product line.
"We first did some bench-top trials using a traditional wet starter, and we loved the great sourdough loaf we got out of it. But as we thought about scaling up this product, we knew it would require specialized equipment and the long fermentation process would be difficult to manage. It would require valuable floor space and increased labour costs."
While demand for sourdough products was strong, maintaining a live starter and incorporating long fermentation times into an already busy production schedule would be difficult. They needed a way to deliver authentic sourdough flavour and character without sacrificing consistency or production efficiency.
The question became: how could they make a sourdough product that maintained quality, consistency, and a taste consumers would recognize as the real thing?
Preserving Sourdough Tradition With Sourdough Concentrates
At Think Ingredients, we are proud to partner with Millbio to bring authentic Italian sourdough expertise to the North American market.
We offer Millbio's line of traditional Italian dry sourdough concentrates. These sourdough concentrates provide manufacturers with a simple way to incorporate authentic Italian sourdough flavour into their products.
Developed by Italian fermentation experts, sourdough concentrates contain the enzymes, cultures, flavours, and specialty flours required to achieve the sensory characteristics of traditional sourdough. Used at just 5-10% of the total flour weight, sourdough concentrates make it easy to simplify production while still delivering authentic flavour and consistent results.
By using sourdough concentrates, our bakery customer saw that they could reduce the maintenance associated with a live starter while freeing up valuable production space and saving time. These advantages were particularly valuable in their frozen dough line, where consistency and performance are critical throughout production, storage, shelf life, and baking. Rather than managing a live starter and its lengthy fermentation process, they were able to achieve authentic sourdough characteristics with the consistency and efficiency required for commercial production.
A Partnership Built on Tradition
We have worked closely with the Millbio team in Italy to understand the application of sourdough concentrates in authentic Italian baked goods. This collaboration allows us to bring Italian baking expertise to Canadian manufacturers while providing the technical support needed to successfully implement these solutions in commercial production.
Panvivo Sourdough Sensations
What makes Italian sourdough special is its connection to regional baking traditions. Across Italy, different grains, fermentation methods, and local ingredients have created distinct styles of bread over time.
Millbio's premium Panvivo Sourdough Sensations line captures this diversity through three traditional sourdough concentrates originating from different regions of Italy.
Durum Wheat: The Tradition of Apulia
Originating from Apulia, also known as Italy's breadbasket, the Durum Wheat concentrate is designed to create a Pugliese-style bread. Made with wheat germ, Senatore Capelli wholemeal re-milled semolina, and wheat sourdough, this concentrate delivers the rustic character, famous crust, and distinctive flavour profile associated with southern Italian baking.
Farro: A Tuscan Blend
The Farro concentrate originates from Mugello, Tuscany. Formulated with Triticum dicoccum wholemeal flour, roasted barley malt, wheat sourdough, and wheat germ, this concentrate produces Schiacciata Toscana. A bread often described as a blend between focaccia and ciabatta, it has a crispy outside and a chewy inside with a pleasantly tangy flavor profile. Its rustic appearance and texture make it an excellent choice for artisan-style sandwiches, specialty bakery products, or simply as a bread.
Riso Nero: Purple-black Rice from Piedmont
Originating from the Piedmont region, the Riso Nero creates a distinctive, aromatic ciabatta with a unique flavour profile and a dark purple-black appearance.
All-Inclusive Premixes
To simplify production even further, Think offers pre-formulated premix blends developed and blended out of our Burlington facility to ensure manufacturers have everything they need to create authentic Italian bakery products with ease. These all-inclusive blends eliminate the need for extensive recipe development. Manufacturers simply add water, yeast, and oil.
The Rise of Focaccia
Recognizable by its signature dimpled surface, focaccia is traditionally sprinkled with salamoia, a 1:2 mixture of water and olive oil, and baked to develop a crispy, golden crust while maintaining a pillowy, airy interior.
But producing high-quality focaccia can be challenging and requires careful formulation. By using Think Foccacia Premix, customers can achieve excellent rise, structure, flavour, and consistency from batch to batch.
One customer using our focaccia mix stated:
"We were surprised by how easy it was. It made the development so much easier as we had a great, authentic tasting focaccia after adding our own water, yeast, and oil to the mix. Plus, the consistency from one production run to the next is exactly what we needed"
For manufacturers looking to expand their bakery portfolio without increasing formulation complexity, Think Focaccia premix is an excellent option for producing authentic-tasting products.
Learn more about our Focaccia premix:
Pinsa: Italy's Fast-Growing Bakery Trend
Another Italian bakery product that's quickly earning its place in North American markets is Pinsa. Often compared to pizza, Pinsa is a distinct product with its own history, formulation, and texture profile. Characterized by a neutral yet flavorful taste profile with less tang than traditional sourdough, Pinsa has a light texture, crispy crust, and soft interior. It is typically fluffier than traditional pizza, yet thinner than focaccia.
Think Pinsa Premix makes it easy for manufacturers to produce authentic Pinsa while keeping operations straightforward. Containing the traditional Italian ingredients required for classic Pinsa, the premix helps create the soft, extensible dough and distinctive texture consumers expect.
Learn more about our Pinsa premix:
Tradition Meets Large-Scale Manufacturing
The baking industry continues to evolve, but consumer demand for authentic products remains constant. Whether it's a rustic sourdough loaf inspired by Tuscany, a traditional Pugliese bread from Apulia, a golden focaccia, or an airy Pinsa, North American consumers are increasingly seeking products with heritage, craftsmanship, and distinctive flavor.
At the same time, manufacturers require solutions that support efficiency, consistency, and scalability. Think's sourdough concentrates and premixes help deliver both.
By combining traditional Italian fermentation expertise with modern production requirements, manufacturers can bring authentic Italian bakery products to market without the challenges of traditional fermentation.
At Think Ingredients, we are proud to be the exclusive distributor of Millbio's sourdough concentrates in Canada. Contact us to learn how we can help bring authentic Italian baking traditions to your next project.
