Bread production in Albania: a quality assessment

In the present work the state of bread production in Albania was examined and fourteen types of Albanian bread, from different zones of the country, were characterised with the aim of assessing their quality. A big variety was observed both in the type of flours used and in the range of the possible ingredients, such as seeds of different oleaginous crops, reflecting in significant differences in the overall chemical-nutritional composition of the examined breads. Besides, in the course of the study some types of traditional breads were also individuated and described for the first time. The obtained results indicated that the protein content reflected the characteristics of the raw material used, being higher in the chick-pea bread and in bread from wholemeal wheat flour. The breads containing maize flour or seeds of sunflower and pumpkin or olive oil in their dough showed a significantly higher content of both carotenoids and fat than the other samples. A high humidity value was found for many of the examined breads, with consequent possible risks of moulds and, then, a short shelf-life.