WHITE BREAD

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21203, 28 August 1940, Page 7

WHITE BREAD

WITH WHEAT GERM

INSTITUTE FINDS PROCESS - SPECIAL VITAMIN CONTAINED (By Telegraph.—Special to Times) WELLINGTON. Tuesday A process has been evolved by the New Zealand Wheat Research Institute which will enable the nutritive qualities of the wheat germ to be included in bread made from white flour, thus giving it the advantages of wholemeal bread. It has been fully tested, work on the process having continued for a year so that all the technical difficulties could be overcome. Formulate for making this bread are being sent to all bakers in the Dominion, so that they can make the new bread if the demand arises. Announcing this important development, the Minister in charge of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Hon. D. G. McMillan, remarked that white flour consists of the ground endosperm of the wheat grain, most of the bran and germ being removed in the milling process. Special Vitamin “Since the discovery of the vitamins,” continued Dr. McMillan, “it has been realised that one special vitamin, called Vitamin 81, exists in wheat germ in rather high proportions, and that there is hardly any other common ftDodstuff that contains this special vitamin to a similar extent. People who Jive very largely on a diet of white bread may therefore suffer in health for want of Vitamin 81, although those who have a reasonably mixed diet, including meat, vegetables, fruit, etc., probably secure a supply sufficient for all needs. “There is, however,” continued the Minister, “an insistent demand for the inclusion of this germ in bread, and this has led to a considerable use of bread made from wholemeal, which, of course, includes the germ. Wholemeal bread is, however, disliked by many people as a conrtant article of diet, so numerous attempts have been made to incorporate wheat germ in white bread. They have nearly all in the past resulted in a loaf which was either unpalatable to most people or one that required special processes in manufacture, with consequent increased costs. It would therefore be valuable if any process could be devised for incorporating the germ in white bread by methods applicable to ordinary bakers’ practice, and produces a loaf palatable to most people.” Fermentation Process How the disadvantages have been overcome is described by Dr. McMillan, who explained that recent work by American cereal chemists showed what ingredient of the wheat germ was probably responsible for injury to the quality of the loaf. In 1939 Mr E. W. Hullett, chief chemist of the Wheat Research Institute, Christchurch, in considering the nature of the chemical action involved, formulated the hypothesis that the injurious effect of the germ on the loaf could be overcome by a process of pre-fermentation. In most attempts at incorporating the germ in white bread, the flour and yeast and the germ have been all mixed together, and then allowed to ferment, and it is in this case that the injurious effect of the germ on texture, etc., became apparent. On this assumption, the injurious effect would probably be removed if the yeast and germ alone were allowed to ferment, and this ferment added to the flour to make the dough. Tried I or a Year Mr H. R. Hansen, then one of the bakers of the institute, on Mr Hullett’s suggestion, applied the hypothesis to baking practice in the institute’s bake room, and found that adoption of the principle of prefermentation of the germ resulted in a germ loaf that was almost indistinguishable from ordinary white bread. The Minister referred to a year’s trial of the principle, and the fact that full information is being provided to all bakers regarding the method. “The germ,” concluded Dr. McMillan, “may be included in the bread in various concentrations. Wholemeal bread contains only 2 per cent, of germ, but the new process 4 per cent, of germ gives a loaf hardly distinguishable from ordinary white bread. It has good volume and texture, a slightly greyish colour, but almost no distinctive flavour. When up to 10 per cent, of germ is used, the loaf has a slight flavour of the germ and is of a light brown colour, but in volume and texture is exactly like white bread.

“Feeding trials have been carried out at the Medical School in Dunedin by the Nutrition Research Department of the New Zealand Medical Research Council, and these trials showed that the nutritive properties of the germ are retained in bread made by this process.”