Teorías de la Pertinencia

Bread in Polish cuisine and tradition is important. It has been an essential part of them both for centu- ries. Now the variety of different bread types available at the nearest grocer's is taken for granted. However, in the past ages, time of hardship often struck, and bread was treated with great respect. When bread fell to the ground, it was immediately picked up and kissed. A new loaf was marked with the sign of the cross before cutting. Important guests to the house were greeted with bread and salt. Similar traditions also exist in other European countries.

Today bread remains one of the most important foods. The main ingredient for Polish bread is wheat, rye or both. Such bread is made with sourdough, which lends it a distinctive taste. It can be stored for a week or so without getting too hard and is not crumbly when cut. Unfortunately, these days more and more bread is made in a more "modern" industrial way for a cheaper price and - compared to rye bread, with less taste.

But it is still quite easy to find great bread in Poland. Each good craft bakery makes its bread slightly differently. Bread is made of various cereals (not just wheat or rye), whole grain bread and sometimes some extra traditional ingredients are used (e.g. onion, sunflower seed or lard).

In last 10-15 years, spelt flour is used commonly. Taking a broader view, the variety of bakery products in Poland is truly magnificent! From bread rolls and rogaliks (a kind of croissant) to cheesecakes and

Close to 25% of rye grain is used for human consumption. Despite the saying, that rye flour contains many nutritional components, its use for bread making drops down all the time. In the last 50 years, the percentage share of rye bread in the total bread consumption got reduced from 50% to 2%. It is also due to about 50% reduction of bread consumption during the years.

The significance of rye is steadily increasing for industrial purposes. More than 70% of alcohol in the country is produced out of rye grain. Its importance may still be increased because of the use of ethanol as an environment-friendly biofuel (Czarnecki, Michniewicz 2000). Nevertheless, it should be stressed, that a steady crop improvement by breeding, application of modern plant cultivation and grain produc- tion, human and animal feeding technologies, other cereal species have become more and more com- petitive for rye.

Most common oat product for human consumption on Polish market is oat flakes – cereal. Currently, there are three classes produced flakes:

 Common - subject to minimum hydrothermal treatment to prepare a meal, it is necessary to cook them;

 So-called “mountain” - with a greater degree of processing, in order to prepare them to eat enough to boil;

 Instant - ready to eat cold, characterised by lower humidity (below 10%).

There is also oatmeal with vitamin. They are produced from malted grain oats. As a result of this treat- ment is prepared up to 40 mg of vitamin C per 100 g of cereal. However, their production is low due to the possibility of mould growth during the malting process, and hence the need to maintain a very high purity of line (Gąsiorowski 1995).

Most popular dish from oats is “owsianka” – porridge, a dish prepared with oat flakes and milk. Depend- ing on the type of flakes it could be cooked in boiling water or flooded. Traditional Polish porridge is prepared with no other additives than a pinch of salt or sugar (sweet porridge). There are also versions of foods: vegetables, garlic and chilli or even tuna. Sweet porridge added apple, banana, nuts, cocoa or dried fruit and nuts.

Oat flakes are used as an (sometimes main) ingredient in a variety of muesli, muesli bars and other breakfast cereals products. Average consumption of cereals in Poland over the last decade has in- creased almost 10-fold. Breakfast cereals and muesli products are very well known and liked by Polish consumers. The market is very diverse in terms of size, type of packaging and pricing, and the Poles willing to reach for these products.

a good place to test new products. Thanks to this attitude of consumers, the industry is experiencing its heyday with new products in support of health & wellness. The reason for this situation is also a grow- ing nutritional awareness of the Poles, who are increasingly turning attention to the presence of valua- ble products in their daily diet. Such a trend is also weight loss and healthy eating. Driven by consumer expectations, manufacturers have launched many innovative articles, among which are the proposals of breakfast (http://m.biznes.pl; http://magazynhandel.pl)

Table 20: Examples of companies producing, selling or processing spelt in Poland (list not complete):

Companies Products Links Sales Channels

ANIA Produkty rolnictwa ekologicznego

Fan cookies from spelt 120g .tobio.pl/fun-cookies- orkiszowe-120g.html

.tobio.pl .biovert.pl http//.alma24.pl

BIO Babalscy Spelt grits 500g

Fine spelt grits 500g Medium spelt grits 500g Oats grits 500g

Spelt coffee minced 500g Spelt flour type 1850 BIO Oats flour type 500 BIO Spelt pasta various types other biobabalscy.pl/nowa/ .tobio.pl/manufacturer/bio- babalscy .tobio.pl BIOHURT Sp. z o.o. Pokrzydowo

Flours, Grits biohurt.pl/nowa/ .tobio.pl

Leszno

Bio Planet S.A. Spelt wholemeal bread sticks, salted 150g BIO

.bioplanet.pl/ .tobio.pl

PPUH NIRO Boronów

Spelt pasta, .nowa.niro-bio.pl/ .tobio.pl

Products made of HMC are sold in supermarkets/large supermarket chains (Table 20):

 A range of breakfast cereals, cereal bars and muesli are available on the Polish market. The main player is Nestle, then Sante, Bakalland, Maspex (Mlekołaki), Otmuchów. A lot of Private labels are available as well.

 Oat flakes are very common and easy to produce, local producers are everywhere available, in supermarket chains also

 Local bakeries and supermarket bakeries offer rye bread, spelt based bread or bread made of mix of flours with spelt/rye

 On the shelf with “healthy” products spelt flour, pasta, grits and coffee could be found as well as cookies, sticks and other snacks

 Most common is rye bread and spelt bread (available in “bakeries on the corner” and markets bakeries), oat flakes (everywhere),

 Other products are only in specialised shops with “healthy” or “bio” foods. They are only in big cities located and quite rare. Other ways of buying are Internet shops.

 In Poland, there is also cooked buckwheat grits and cooked barley grits popular as ingredients of main dishes instead of pasta or potato.

In sum, there exists both a large-scale for cereals in Poland. Products from rye and oats are traded on the large-scale market. Spelt products are available( Table 20). However, no information is available on products made from spelt, emmer and einkorn. We assume, that they were still located on the niche market (spelt) or no market is developed (emmer, einkorn).