1st Richemont Sourdough Summit

Healthy & Tasty Bread with Sourdough

346 Experts from 13 countries met on 9 May 2019 for the 1st Richemont Sourdough Summit at the Swiss Museum of Transport Lucerne. It offered valuable suggestions and a useful exchange on all aspects of the topic.

Sourdough is Trendy

As an introduction, Jorge Pastor, President of Richemont Club International and initiator of the event, described that the switch to short, direct leavening did not take place until the 20th century and that one now returns to the long leavening. «Bread is biotechnology, and that's what arouses the interest of science,» he added. And so the lectures at the summit were mainly scientifically shaped.

Most of the speakers came from academic research. They placed high demands on the audience and on the six-lingual translation team with scientific studies and terminology. But the positive key messages were always understood: sourdough makes baked goods tasteful and durable and serves the health and prevention of various diseases.

However, this message needs to be conveyed much more to customers, who are often very interested in nutrition issues, and to be formulated in a more attractive way said Michael Kleinert from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and Bernd Kütscher, Director of the Academy of German Bakers. The two of them together published the book "The Language of Bread", which gives practical guidance. Heinrich Beck from the South German company BeckaBeck showed in practice how this can be successfully achieved. It was recommended that instead of calling it sourdough, as in the Latin languages, to rather speak of mother dough or bread with a mild acidity.

Science Emphasizes the Benefits

The scientific data backed up by many study results showed that the fermentation processes triggered by sourdough and long leavening further improve the already high quality of bakery products, prevent allergies and diseases, and reduce salt and sugar to improve tolerability and health. The addition of vegetables, vitamin D etc. to sourdough further emphasizes these benefits.

«Sourdough is the baker's soul. Give the bread a soul again” quoted Richemont Director Reto Fries at the end baker Martin Auer from Graz (A).

Networking und Documentation

In addition to the many suggestions from the presentations, the coffee and food breaks of the all-day event were also valuable: Market stalls provided sourdough pastries from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland. Eight sponsors presented their samples and also offered sourdough pastries for testing, including gluten-free products that have reached a good taste level today. The exchange with experts from home and abroad about what they heard and their own experiences was as well very interesting.