The Effect of Reducing Sodium Chloride Concentration and Substituting It with Potassium Chloride on the Sensory and Chemical Properties of Barbari Bread: A laboratory study

Reducing salt intake is one of the strategies for preventing and controlling noncomunicable diseases. Bread is one of the important sources of salt, and reducing its salt content can play a major role in reducing salt intake in the community. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of reducing the consumption of salt and substituting it with potassium chloride on the sensory and chemical characteristics of Barbari bread.

The present research is a laboratory study in which 7 types of Barbari bread including 6 experimental treatments (3 samples with different concentrations of salt and 3 samples with different concentrations of mix of sodium chloride and potassium chloride) and one control (containing 1% sodium chloride) prepared for chemical (ash, sodium, potassium, sodium to potassium ratio, and salt) and sensory (shape, upper and under surface, color, texture, chewingability, aroma and odor, taste, and quality number) tests. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by Duncan post hoc test.

Reducing the amount of salt (NaCl or NaCl: KCl) reduced the ash, sodium, salt, and Na/K ratio. According to the sensory characteristics assessment, the treatments had no significant difference with the control bread with regard to form, characteristics of upper and under surface, color (except 0.25% NaCl), texture, chewingability, aroma and odor and taste (except the without salt treatment), and the quality number of the bread (p>0.05).

Reducing the amount of Barbari salt to about half of the present value is possible, in order to produce breads with less salt content, in terms of sensory and chemical evaluation of the produced breads and there is no problem with the mentioned tests in the production of low-salt Barbari bread, as well as the replacement of its salt with potassium chloride.