More additives mean quality suffers
Most of the bread that Greeks eat (of a total of some 800,000 metric tons a year, costing more than 1 billion euros) is of high quality, say representatives of Greece’s more than 13,000 bakeries. But a small proportion is of poorer quality, they note. In recent months, bakers have been campaigning against imports of frozen dough, which is not illegal, but which they claim makes bread of dubious quality. Since last October, representatives of the Bakers’ Federation have been complaining about imports of frozen dough from countries such as China, Morocco and Bulgaria which, they argue, is being sold as fresh. Federation president Michalis Mousios told Kathimerini about documents for the import of 18 metric tons of frozen dough of Polish origin. He estimated that around 5 percent of the bread and other baked products sold in Greece is not identified, and underlined the need for all products made from frozen dough, or pre-cooked or frozen products, to be labeled with their place of origin. «In department stores and large hotels in Greece, bread comes from the freezer, but consumers don’t know that,» he said. Quoting scientific studies, Mousios claimed that frozen dough is made with twice the amount of yeast and three times as many additives as is normal dough, and could have health consequences for vulnerable consumers, such as pregnant women or people who suffer from allergies. Better inspections His argument cuts no ice with G. Mavromaras, secretary of the League of Bread Manufacturers, who says there is no question of a dispute with traditional bakeries. «The conflict comes solely from the bakers who want to monopolize the market and refuse to open it up to competition and allow bread to be sold in different places, as it is everywhere else in the world. In other countries you can even buy bread at gas stations,» Mavromaras told Kathimerini, adding that Greece had been reported to the European Court for failing to liberalize the bread market. The league maintains that the food manufacturing industry has better monitoring, quality control and security systems than do traditional bakeries. Labeling ingredients And, it notes, mass-produced bread sold at hot spots and other outlets established by factories bears labels listing its ingredients, unlike bread from bakeries. «The term frozen dough is a fabrication that the bakers have cleverly disseminated. There is no such raw material. Pre-baked bread is made with the same ingredients used by the baker, but the baking is completed at the outlet,» explained Mavromaras, who believes the research cited by the bakers to have been guided by them. «From the point of view of nutritional substances, there is no difference between fresh and pre-baked bread, apart from the fact that in the former the production process is uninterrupted,» say league representatives, who attribute the bakers’opposition to the price, since manufactured bread is 30 percent cheaper. They also believe that if the market is opened up, their share of it will double. Mavromaras argues that the bakers themselves buy frozen goods, since they get supplies from the bread industry and sell items such as cookies, pastries, pies and croissants which make up something like 80 percent of their takings. The confusion about what is fresh and pure has led a considerable number of consumers to bake their own bread at home, bringing back memories of a village with an oven in the courtyard. Whether made in a factory or a bakery, bread from frozen dough has been shown by some researchers to be inferior in ways that affect safety and quality. At a Bakers’ Federation congress held recently in Alexandroupolis, nutritionist Dorina Sialvera presented data from studies conducted in Greece, France, Australia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil and the US. In Greece the most recent study – conducted by Athens University’s food chemistry and technology laboratory and published in 2003 – demonstrated that the quality of frozen dough is affected by the length of time the dough is kneaded, the rate at which it is frozen, storage time and thawing time. These factors can make yeast less active, reduce air retention, damage the web of gluten (the most important protein in bread), and result in a gradual loss of strength in the dough and poor performance when baked. A French university study reached the same conclusions, Sialvera reported. The study explained that the difficulty of producing and storing frozen dough is such that «for this reason factories use far more yeast (twice as much as normal), additives and preservatives.» The researchers note that these techniques may have negative consequences ranging from mild to serious, including an undesirable odor caused by excessive use of yeast and allergies among sensitive consumers, because the dough has not risen completely. Their findings were backed up by a Brazilian study in which the researchers claim that one way of counteracting the disadvantages of bread made from pre-baked dough is to add gluten or other additives and enzymes. As sales of pre-baked bread and dough increase in the US, laboratories are experimenting with new, genetically modified (GM) types of yeast that are resistant to temperatures below freezing point. New additives Another study, carried out in Portugal, noted that manufacturers are constantly seeking new kinds of additives to improve the expansion power of yeast so as to maintain its capacity at low temperatures and make it suitable for use in frozen dough, Sialvera reported. They have isolated various types of yeast either from natural or GM sources. This worries consumers and scientists, as it is likely that GM substances will be used in frozen dough without any labels appearing on the end product. «Further laboratory analysis and more studies of specific types of products are clearly needed, said Sialvera, «but this evidence is sufficient to convince us that fresh dough and freshly baked bread are far superior to any processed products and are irreplaceable, both in terms of quality and security and for their nutritional value.»
