SOURDOUGH CRACKERS

Peter’s Yard Seeded Wholegrain Sourdough Crispbread

105g, £2.95, Sainsbury’s and ocado.com

CLAIM: Crackers made from ‘sourdough, which is fed daily and allowed to ferment for 16 hours before each batch is baked’, say the makers.

VERDICT: Rather than adding yeast, sourdough is traditionally made from flour, water and a ‘starter’ — a kind of watery dough mix of flour and water that is left out and ferments through exposure to ‘wild’ yeasts and bacteria found in the flour, air and on the baker’s hands.

These crackers contain 11.5 per cent of sourdough made the traditional way, but baking will kill any beneficial microorganisms. That said, the fermentation process before baking can reduce the amount of fructans — carbohydrates that are broken down by the bacteria in our large bowel which can cause side-effects such as bloating. In theory, this means sourdough crackers may be easier for some people to digest, but there’s probably not enough real sourdough here to make a difference.

Many supermarket sourdough products aren’t made the traditional way, but a dried sourdough flavour is added so any benefit of long fermentation is lost.