Wheatless bread for poor

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 21

Wheatless bread for poor

United Nations officials say they have discovered how to make bread without wheat, a breakthrough that could end developing countries’ damaging dependence on imported grain, writes Barry Moody in the “Observer.”

The discovery involves replacing gluten, a substance mainly found in wheat. Gluten traps gases created by yeast fermentation to give bread its lightness.

Instead Canadian scientist Mortin Satin has found that a viscous substance which can replace wheat gluten can be made

merely by boiling cassava, or flour from sorghum or maize, in water. Yeast and other ingredients are added to make a batter, rather than a dough, which is baked to make bread.

Satin, a U.N. food technician, said developing countries, where conditions are often unsuitable for growing wheat, had become dependent on imported wheat at the expense of traditional, and sometimes more expensive, local crops, creating a major obstacle to agricultural development.

The U.N. wants to reverse this dependence on wheat and revive local crops. To do this it had to

find another way of making bread. “Wheat’s major advantage over indigenous crops is its basic ability to make bread, a very convenient product,” said Satin. To convince journalists that it had succeeded, the U.N. treated them to snacks of cheese and breads made from rice, barley, maize and cassava. Verdict? Barley bread was a clear winner, although all the new loaves wererated highly edible. Now officials are to give demonstrations in countries such as Sudan, Nigeria and Cuba to persuade bakers to give up wheat.