5. Composite Flours in Different Continents
The ingredients used in composite flours must take account of the raw materials available in the country concerned. The objective is to save as much expensive imported wheat as possible when making bakery products.

5.1. South America
In the late 1960s, tests were carried out in Brazil in which 75% wheat flour was mixed with the relevant amounts of potato, maize or cassava flour. The baking tests were conducted on the basis of the Chorleywood bread process. The same flours were used as raw materials for biscuits, but the proportion of wheat flour was reduced to 50%. There is no evidence that these experiments have been put to practical use. A limiting factor is that the use of potassium bromate for treating wheat flours is prohibited (Berghofer, 2000); however, flour improvers containing enzymes are now available as an effective substitute.

5.2. Africa
Most of the trials with composite flours have been carried out in this continent because of Africa's continually growing population. Reports are available from Senegal, Niger and Sudan (Berghofer, 2000). In the bread sector the task here was to produce typical French bread with composite flour. The proportion of wheat flour in the different mixtures varied greatly, the maximum being 70%. Because of the difficulty of keeping bread fresh, a great many experiments were carried with composite flours in biscuit production. Biscuits keep longer, and it is no problem to bake them at a central facility and transport them over long distances (Jongh, 1961). So far there are no reports that bread and biscuits have been produced from composite flours to any appreciable extent in an African country. In spite of the lower price, the population is often disinclined to buy such bread because of its unfamiliar flavour and its chewing properties, which differ from those of ordinary white bread. Moreover, there are persistent rumours that many institutions profit financially from imports of wheat, and this would not be the case if locally-grown raw materials were used.

On 1 January 2005 Nigeria enacted a directive that makes the addition of 10% cassava flour to wheat flour mandatory in order to support the local cassava crop and reduce exports of hard currency. Unfortunately, cassava has always been a staple food of the very poor. Since the local growers of cassava roots can by no means satisfy the theoretical demand of the flour mills, at least a temporary shortage with price increases is likely. Moreover, the available cassava flour qualities differ greatly, for example in colour, taste and cyanoglycoside content. So it is still not certain whether this initiative will soon result in the long-term use of cassava flour in wheat flour.


Post a Comment

أحدث أقدم