What to Look for on a Bread Ingredients Label
The best breads are essentially a simple mix of flour, leavening agent, salt, and water. Quick bread recipes will also include fat, a leavening agent such as baking soda or baking powder, a sweetener, and perhaps an egg.
However, a glance at some ingredient labels confirms that some bakeries just don't seem to know how to leave well enough alone. Many commercially baked breads are made with ingredients that primarily benefit the manufacturer in order to reduce production time, modify the appearance and texture of the final baked product (dough conditioners), or to reduce costs by using cheaper chemical compounds as substitutes for more wholesome ingredients. What naturally would take several hours to create an excellent, delicious and nutrition bread can, with modern bread technology, take just a matter of minutes. These extra, typically superfluous ingredients, can be categorized according to their function within a bread recipe, including:
- Flavor enhancers
- Colorants/color enhancers
- Preservatives
- Acidulants and buffers which affect the flavor and help regulate and balance pH (acidity/alkalinity) of the dough.
- Fermentation accelerators which act as fuel for the yeast to help induce yeast activity.
- Emulsifiers which retard staling and distribute fat throughout the dough for a softer texture. In deference to the old adage "oil and water don't mix", emulsifying agents attract both, keeping them in suspension.
- Enzymes which act as catalysts that increase the rate of chemical reactions that, otherwise, would occur more slowly or not at all. When flour is combined with water as the first step when a starting a bread dough, starch enzymes called amylase that are naturally present in the flour begin to break down the complex starches into simple sugars to fuel the yeast. Specifically it is the alpha form of amylase, also known as diastase, that do this important work.
- Oxidizing agents which help make breads more springy, softer in texture, finer grained, and more voluminous by acting on the gluten in flour to increase its strength. They also make the dough more dry and sturdy to prevent sticking in production machinery.
- Reducing agents which do the opposite of oxidizers. Rather than strengthening the protein chains, reducing agents break them to soften the gluten so the dough requires less mixing time and energy for quicker process manufacturing of breads.
What would an ingredient label of bread made with these unnecessary categories of ingredients look like in contrast to bread made with quality in mind? Consider the following ingredients labels for two brands of sandwich rolls and two brands of French bread.
| Sandwich Roll #1 Enriched wheat flour (unbleached flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, enzyme, riboflavin, folic acid). water, leavening (yeast, calcium sulfate), high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed and/or canola oils, egg, sugar, salt, vital wheat gluten, datem, dextrose, monoglycerides, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate, dough conditioners (ascorbic acid, sodium stearoyl lactylate, enthoxylated mono and diglycerides, enzymes, calcium dioxide, azodicarbonamide), emulsifiers (datem, mono and diglycerides), guar gum, cellulose gum, azodicarbonamide, modified food starch, citric acid, preservatives (potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate), xanthan gum, proplylene glycol alginate. |
Sandwich Roll #2 Organic wheat flour, organic whole wheat flour, sea salt, yeast |
| French Bread #1 Unbleached enriched flour) wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin), salt, dextrose, water, vegetable shortening (may contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil, hydrogenated cottonseed oil with BHT and citric acid added to improve stability), wheat gluten, whey powder, dough conditioner (calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, ascorbic acid, wheat starch, calcium stearoyl-2-lactylate, azodicarbonamide. |
French Bread #2 Organic wheat flour, filtered water, sea salt, yeast, malted barley flour |
Despite the fact each of the above examples can be identified on a label as the same type of bread, the difference between the ingredients used is significant. Most of the additives found in the first examples are avoidable and unnecessary. Bread can and should be made with as few ingredients as possible.
And now consider the following ingredients labels for two brands of tortillas and two brands of muffins.
| Flour Tortilla #1 Enriched, bleached wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, vegetable oil (partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil), sugar, salt, and contains 2% or less of: leavening (sodium bicarbonate, sodium acid pyrophosphate), calcium propionate and sorbic acid (to preserve freshness), fumaric acid (preservative), dough conditioners (mono and diglycerides, sodium metabisulfite) |
Flour Tortilla #2 White: Organic wheat flour, water, canola oil, non-aluminum baking powder, salt OR Whole Wheat: Organic whole wheat flour, water, organic expeller-pressed soy oil, sea salt, aluminum-free baking powder |
| Blueberry Muffin #1 Sugar, bleached enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), whole eggs, soybean oil, blueberries, modified corn starch, whey, mono and diglycerides, baking powder (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate), vital wheat gluten, salt, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sorbitan monostearate, nonfat milk, calcium acetate, natural and artificial flavors, guar gum, xanthan gum, corn starch, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, polysorbate 60 and sodium propionate (as preservatives), FD&C Blue #2 and Red #40, yeast |
Blueberry Muffin #2 Wheat pastry flour, blueberries, filtered water, sugar, canola oil, eggs (whole eggs, sugar, seaweed powder, glycerol, maltodextrin), unbleached-untreated wheat flour, vanilla, buttermilk powder, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate, calcium phosphate, sea salt, lemon juice, magnesium carbonate |
