The bread process from prehistory back to our days

Italy occupies a first stage role for the craft baking at world level. Our country provided a fundamental contribution to the spread of bread culture, just to recall the roman army bakeries. Since then Italy has always been a protagonist in the baking field and in the baking machines and bakery’s equipments.

Bread was already known to the Homo sapiens, at that time bread was prepared by milling some cereals with water between two stones, then baking the dough on a hot stone. After this, the baking technique spread to Egypt, where the fermentation was discovered, this is the phenomenon for which dough, left to rest for a day and then baked, results in softer and more fragrant bread. Jewish instead, eat the bread during the commemoration of their exodus from Egypt. From Egypt baking arrived in Greece, where more than 70 different bread qualities were produced. Greeks had the idea to insert in the base recipe some other ingredients, such as milk, oil, cheese, herbs and honey. They also were the first to make bread at night.

Since then the processing methods of bread changed, especially bakery’s tools changed. The main manufacturing processes are the dough, the bulk fermentation, where the dough is left at rest, then the dividing and in the end the rounding and molding of the sponge. In this last phase the dough or sponge is divided in pieces of the desired weigh and shape. During the leavening stage bread is put down on some wood boards or on baking tins until its volume increases twofold or threefold. In the end there is the cooking. Now all these processes are made by automatic machines, allowing the production of much more bread and also the mass consumption of bread.

Analyzing the concrete sector situation, we can immediately notice that the actual crisis is very deep, but this of course doesn’t mean it will never end. It is exactly in this view that it is necessary that also bread-makers have to be ready. In fact, people who work in the bread-making and in the craft confectionery industry have to take the opportunity offered by the future. Nutritionists recommend bread as a basic food for the daily nutrition. This is a cheap and healthy food. Now it is the moment to strengthen this tendency and to further develop it.

Although the price of bread have been increasing in the last months, reducing bread consumption, since the beginning of 2009, prices have been lowering a bit, or in any case they have stopped increasing sky-high. In 2009 provisions foresee a huge increase in production that should continue also in future years. These are certainly very encouraging data, both for the sector operators, and for families that could start buy bread again, because this is a very important element in the Mediterranean diet. But this very ambitious goal can be reached only if consumers’ expectations will be satisfied, with the best quality of the product, of service and marketing.

To be successful in the long-term period, the sector industry has to be able to maintain such elevated standard, as for example the use of first quality equipments, machines but especially raw products.

And over all we hope prices keep significantly falling down.