Can soya, corn and barley be the answer to the bread crisis, asks Ghada Abdel-Kader There is no doubt that the high cost of wheat flour is the main cause behind the current bread crisis. Bread is the common factor in all three meals of Egyptians, and as Amina Abdel-Motaleb, consultant at the National Nutrition Institute (NNI), asserts, it provides children with one third of their daily requirements of protein and iron. For adults and pregnant women, it provide them with one fourth of their requirements of iron. Bread, or aish (life/living), has driven scientists at the Food Technology Research Institute (FTRI) at the Agriculture Research Centre to experiment on other nutritious ingredients that could substitute for or complement wheat cheaply. To senior researcher and founder of FTRI Ahmed Khorshid, the "father of bread" as he is often called, healthy food must include three main and balanced components: carbohydrates found in starch, proteins that build cells and muscles, sugar, fats and oils, vitamins and minerals. " Baladi bread components provide energy from starch, protein from wheat, vitamins and minerals, while fibre helps in digestion. Wheat protein and bran are good sources for vitamins and minerals," Khorshid explained to Al-Ahram Weekly. "Due to the high price of wheat we started research studies on alternatives to wheat flour five years ago," added Hanan Fawzi, a researcher at FTRI. And the result was a success. Khorshid managed to bake soya bread by adding 3-5 per cent soya flour to wheat flour. The mix is high in nutrition and low in price, for it costs PT10, only PT5 more than regular baladi bread. "This bread could be the answer to low-income citizens who eat three loaves of bread daily. It is the equivalent of a piece of meat. Moreover, soya bread has no side effects and there are countries that live completely on soya products like China," added Khorshid, suggesting the government's strategies to solve the bread crisis could include usage of soya flour to raise the nutrition value of the bread. It is a kind of investment. If you eat well you will enjoy good health, become more productive and the money spent on medical care will be reduced." Soya might be a novel ingredient to Egyptian consumers but the deviation from wheat flour is hardly new. In rural areas, there are more than 80 kinds of bread that vary in components in accordance to the geographical area: aish merahrah, sumashi, emmer, spelt, battaw and tabaki and many more. The introduction of modern bakeries to such areas discouraged people to bake at home and made them dependent on only baladi bread. "They used to bake bread from maize, wheat and barley flour. They even introduced other ingredients such as fenugreek and okra. When they stopped baking and bought the cheap subsidised bread, wheat consumption increased and we started importing wheat." Khorshid explained to the Weekly how more than 40 other countries use various mixes of grains, like Mexico, where corn is used, and China, where rice is used. Corn and barley on the other hand are other nutritious supplements as well as means to reduce wheat importation. Youssef Abul-Azm, head of the research department of bread and pasta, explained that currently 20 per cent maize flour is added to the baladi bread. However, "a week ago, we experimented on baladi bread further by adding 5-10 per cent bran to wheat flour, raising the extraction rate of wheat flour to 92 per cent, while decreasing the amount of imported wheat flour and keeping the quality the same. The government will feel the change, not the consumer," said Abul-Azm. On a similar note, such crops are highly nutritious. According to researchers Nadia Assem, Nadia Abdel-Motaleb and Afaf Attia, hulless barley is a good alternative to wheat in producing baladi bread. Assem revealed that barley plays an important role in lowering blood cholesterol levels and triglyceride. It also balances blood glucose levels, kidney and liver functions. Moreover, barley contains antioxidants, can reduce sleeping disorders, is a laxative, and is good for the digestive system and inflammation of the urinary tract. It decreases the risk for certain diseases such as heart disease, typhoid, diabetes and cancer. "We need financial support to establish more bakeries. Such bakeries will work under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and the FTRI department of bread and pasta. And the bread price could be subsidised by only PT25 as opposed to PT50," Assem added. Researcher Gamal Zahran conducted an economic study in 2007 on tortilla (corn) bread where he managed to raise the temperature necessary to preserve the bread from a low temperature to room temperature. The study showed that the efficiency was between 92 and 97 per cent for maize flour used in corn bread, unlike wheat flour where 20 to 30 per cent is lost in the process of the production of baladi bread. Moreover, the study explained that due to the oily nature of maize flour, more water is needed; hence the dough is larger, leading to more bread production. "One kilogramme of maize flour produces 24 loaves of corn bread, as opposed to wheat flour, where one kilogramme can only produce 10 loaves of bread. Bear in mind that the price of corn bread is PT6, and importing corn is much cheaper than wheat," noted Zahran, adding that corn bread is useful for those who suffer from wheat protein allergies. Some agricultural obstacles might surface if barley and maize are planted because of their disturbance of the agriculture cycle that dictates the timing of the planting of barely and maize. It should be planted after the wheat crop. There is also the issue of crops that are needed for animals. But Abul-Azam noted that such obstacles could be resolved. "Take barley, for example. It's a crop that does not require special growing conditions other than irrigation. It can be grown on the north coast, Lake Nasser or in Owainat," Abul- Azm noted. But despite such extensive research, a successful end result must look to the bakeries and public demand. "In order to go national, we need a ministerial decree," Abul-Azm explained. "The executive authorities should benefit from the studies, but many of these studies are kept in the drawer. The private sector should also support these studies and help realise them," Khorshid concluded. The burning question remains: when will it be the right time to explore such alternatives on a national level?
