One of the objectives of the MED4Youth project is to choose the most complete and healthy sourdough bread with suitable organoleptic properties for the adolescent population. Within the project three different breads have been designed, according to the results of a survey on adolescents’ bread preferences. The new breads developed are to be used in the project’s interventional study, aiming at examining the impact of a Mediterranean Diet enriched with sourdough bread, nuts, pomegranate and chickpeas/hummus on maintaining an optimum weight and healthy habits.
Survey to find out adolescents’ bread preferences
The survey, which was answered by 450 adolescents from Italy, Portugal and Spain had the objective to elucidate the most appreciated bread attributes, and the kind of bread adolescents in MED4Youth study countries mainly consume. Results are shown in figures 1 and 2. As it can be observed, the most rated attributes in bread were a soft crumb and a crispy crust. Other attributes varied depending on the country. For example, the toasted colour is well appreciated in Spain and Italy, but this characteristic is not even considered within the 10 most relevant attributes in Portugal. On the contrary, in Portugal, a light colour is well appreciated, whereas it is not very important neither for Spanish nor Italian adolescents. In general, the attributes they give more attention are those related to texture.
Figure 1: Top ten most rated bread attributes (%) according to adolescents’ opinion
According to the results, 97% of the adolescents consume bread weekly, being the white bread the most consumed. In average, the number of servings consumed are 9,93 weekly.
Figure 2: Bread consumption among adolescents in Spain, Italy and Portugal
Design of three new sourdough breads
With these results we at NOVAPAN were able to design new breads according to consumer preferences, in order to make breads more attractive for adolescents and increase the adherence to its consumption. Considering survey data, NOVAPAN decided to design a bread selected in a previous project based on multigrain leavened with Rebola sourdough and to develop two new bread products based on a baguette format and soft-sandwich format, considering some modifications in texture (softer, similar to a tin loaf) or the inclusion of some vegetable food by-products in order to promote a circular economic model.
The first bread, designed with multigrain-rebola, is based on the bread developed in the previous PANSALUD project. As this bread showed the best results in previous studies, it was decided to adapt its formula to a sandwich bread and to eliminate the seeds from its formulation, as they were not well rated by adolescents in the consumption survey. The most remarkable attributes of this bread are the high proportion of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) (33% of the total fat), high content of wholemeal flours (20% of the total flour) and a soft and attractive texture, in line with adolescents’ preferences.
On the other hand, to improve the nutritional profile of sourdough bread, NOVAPAN decided to test apple pomace coming from the cider industry, as well as the cider lees. The cider pomace is composed mainly by the apple skin, seeds and pulp, once the apple juice is extracted to ferment and produce the cider, whereas cider lees are the yeast that have fermented the apple juice. Both cider pomace and cider lees have high nutritional value (fibre, tannins and polyphenols).
Finally, it was decided to do a nutritional study of the two breads developed with apple by-products to compare their characteristics. The multigrain sandwich showed a higher content of proteins and, specially, a high content on mono-unsaturated fatty acids. On the other hand, it showed a high total fat content, a high total sugar content and in consequence, a high caloric load.
Multigrain PANSALUD bread presented a low concentration of total and free sugars, high polyunsaturated fatty acids (due to the inclusion of seeds) and high protein concentration. On the negative side, it showed a relatively high salt concentration, although it could be reduced for the intervention study.
On the other hand, the apple baguette showed the lowest energy load, lowest salt concentration, lowest total fat and highest fibre content, as expected from the inclusion of an apple by-product. Also, the apple by-product provides a high level of sugars (specially maltose and fructose). It also indicated a low mono-poly unsaturated fatty acid content, but again, the intake of monounsaturated fatty acid will be fully covered with the inclusion of EVOO on the Mediterranean diet for the intervention study. The format is one of the preferred by adolescents, according to the consumption survey, but the flavour provided by the cider lees, may be too strong for adolescent preferences.
Considering all the described above, it was the decided that the multigrain PANSALUD bread would be the best option for MED4Youth intervention study in a baguette format. The main factor to this decision is the fact that this bread gives continuity to PANSALUD project through MED4Youth, providing all the knowledge acquired previously.
About the author
Head of the R+D department in Novapan S.L.
He holds a degree in Veterinary Science (bromatology) (2005). Food Science and Technology (2007). Doctor by the University of Zaragoza in the group of New Technologies of Food Processing (2011). Science and food enthusiast equally, with experience in food microbiology, food preservation, new food processing technologies (PEAV, HPH, HPP) and development of new products. He works at the R+D department in Novapan S.L., where he is dedicated to the development of tasty and also healthier products, both through self-research and funded projects.