Baking soda and salt in bakeries of Mehrdasht (Najafabad), Isfahan, Iran: a survey on a typical rural population in a developing country

BACKGROUND. Bread is a valuable source of proteins, minerals and calories. Baking soda prevents the absorption and digestion of bread and more salt used in production of bread also causes different diseases. This study was conducted to determine the amount of soda and salt in bakeries. METHOD. Cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on 50 bakeries district during 2009. 400 samples were collected in four steps randomly. The standard PH < 6.2 indicative of no consumption of baking soda in bread and salt less than 2g/100 g was considered as the reference. RESULTS. The PH less than 6.2 was seen in 91.5% of samples and analyzed by random effect analysis. In 64.5% of samples, the amount of salt was more than the standard. CONCLUSION. The amount of baking soda used in the bakeries was not high; bakers either had no enough knowledge about the amount of salt or had more other reasons. Drastic measures are recommended.