Bread: Atta, White, Multigrain

Say, which one did you have today?

We tested 13 popular brands of bread – 5 atta, 4 multigrain and 4 white – and put them to test for common standard parameters, including dietary fibre, protein and potassium bromate. Of course, each one of us has a favourite brand of bread and that may have everything to do with habit or everything to do with health consciousness. Where do I get the most dietary fibre, for example? Are they really ‘healthy’ stuff, these fibre-rich variants, as their manufacturers claim? How much is the fibre content in them? What is the chance that a given bread type has sand, dust or dirt? Also, is one fibre-rich bread type as good as another, or is any bread as fine as another—in other words, are they substitutable? Do they all meet the basic quality requirements as per the national standards?

While white bread has refined white flour as the main ingredient, atta bread has whole-wheat flour as the main ingredient or as one of the main ingredients. Multigrain bread has a mix of around 5 to 12 flours (gram, barley, soya bean, etc.) and can be based in either wheat flour (maida) or whole-wheat flour (atta). Making a choice between these can be, as mentioned earlier, a matter of routine or based on one’s health priorities. The following report will give a lowdown on the performance of 13 brands along parameters that are expected to help consumers make an informed choice.