Bread chemical composition

Bread flours are standardized on the basis of their ash content in Europe and, particularly, Germany. The type of flour = ash content (weight %) x 1000 corresponds to the extraction grade. Examples are provided in Table 15.36 for wheat and rye flours and their chemical composition... 

Table 15.55. Chemical composition of some types of bread...

Only those bread types of significant economic importance are listed in Table 15.63. Corresponding data on chemical composition are given in Table 15.55. 

Addition of nutrients became important when the chemical compositions of foods became known and nutrients became readily available usually via chemical synthesis. Bread forms a convenient example. As a student working with Sir Rudolph Peters in the early 1930s on what was later called thiamin, I treated with great respect the crystals of the vitamin laboriously isolated from large quantities of... 

Raidl and Klein (43) substituted 5, 10, and 15% field pea flour in chemically leavened quick bread. The viscosity of the pea flour batters was significantly lower than either the wheat control or soy containing batters. The starch composition of the pea flour and lower water absorption properties of the protein could have affected the viscosity. Volumes of pea flour loaves were lower than the control and soy loaves. Most of the sensory characteristics of the field pea loaves were similar to those of the control quick breads. However, all flavor scores were significantly lower for pea flour products, since they had a recognizably beany or off-flavor. 

Approximately 70f of the monoferric phytate baked into bread could be recovered in extracts of the bread. He have not tested the bioavailability or the chemical form of iron when an iron salt and sodium phytate are baked into bread as was done by McCance et al. (3). If an insoluble ferric phytate of any ion composition was formed, we would expect the iron to be poorly bioavailable. Hussain and Patwardhan (22) did not specify whether they added sodium phytate to the food during preparation or administered it orally when young men ate the meals in their study using a vegetarian menu. They found decreased iron balance when the percentage of phytate phosphorus to total phosphorus was increased from 8 to 40 by addition of sodium phytate. 

Although the chemical behavior of a gas depends on its composition, all gases have remarkably similar physical behavior, which is the focus of this chapter. For instance, although the particular gases differ, the same physical behaviors are at work in the operation of a car and in the baking of bread, in the thrust of a rocket engine and in the explosion of a kernel of popcorn, in the process of breathing and in the creation of thunder. 

Achinewhu, S.C. (1982) The nutritive qualities of plant foods. Chemical and nutritional composition of bread fruit (Artocarpus utilis) and climbing melon seed (Colocynthis vulgans). Nutr. Rep. Int. 24, 643-647. 

The word consumption is intimately related to chemistry and energy. When a piece of bread is eaten (consumed), its mass is not destroyed, nor is its overall atomic composition changed. Some chemical components of the bread are metabolized , that is, they are absorbed by the body and converted to other chemicals through a complex series of chemical reactions. The food components of bread are mostly carbohydrates and these are used primarily to provide energy by a reaction (respiration) very similar to combustion. 

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