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Food Industry:
Ambassadors for healthy bread
FAZER BREAD PROMOTES GOOD HEALTH
Good bread tastes good and has a healthy effect on our bodies.
It has been proved that Finnish crisp makes a great contribution
to good health. Fazer Bakeries is an amabassador for healthy
bread, exporting it and taking part in international studies
on its effect on health.
Fazer Bakeries is the market leader in Finland and the leading
bakery company in the Baltic region. In the Baltic countries
Fazer Bakeries is the second-biggest company in the sector.
“In the Baltic region there are about 140 million consumers
who buy bread worth a total of 25 billion euros a year,”
says managing director Paul Taimitarha.
Besides Finland, Fazer Bakeries has operations in Sweden,
Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. “ Our aim is to
be the best in the bakery sector in Europe. We invest in research
and product development and also in expertise and professional
skills in logistics, marketing, customer service and industrial
baking.”
In recent years the bakeries in St Petersburg and Sweden
and also exports have recorded the strongest growth. Hlebnij
Dom, which is part of the Fazer Group, is the biggest and
most modern bakery in Russia and the clear market leader in
its area. Today St Petersburg’s baking output is about
the same as that of all the Fazer bakeries in Finland combined.
Crisp goes abroad
In the export trade taste is important but so is a convenient
size and healthiness. The main item that is exported is crisp,
with 60 per cent of its production going abroad. The biggest
fans of crisp are in Germany, Norway and Russia. Portion bread
and flat bread in particular are exported from Sweden, and
prjanik biscuits from St Petersburg to Germany and the United
States.
“New products as well as new production and packaging
technology are constantly being developed for export. The
main focus is on the Baltic region, but we look on the whole
world as the market area for crisp. Exports test products’
success on new markets and at the same time identify production
possibilities in the target country,” explains Paul Taimitarha.
Portion bread is the latest innovation on the export market.
The modified-atmosphere packaging makes it possible to store
the bread for a long time. The product group’s top products,
wholemeal rye bread, are also organic, something which is
of interest on the international market.
Rye fibre is a minor major miracle
Bread is a corn product and its effects on health are numerous.
From bread come vitamin B, which is important for the nervous
system, and vitamin E. Mineral-containing bread includes the
following minerals: iron, which is needed for carrying oxygen;
magnesium, which affects the well-being of muscles and bones;
zinc, which promotes the well-being of the skin and improves
wounds; and selenium, which acts as an antioxidant.
Crisp is full of fibre and is also suitable for slimmers.
Unquestionably the best source of fibre is wholemeal rye bread.
Eat this and your blood sugar will rise slowly and remain
steady for a long time, and the pangs of hunger will be warded
off for longer. The healing effect of rye fibre on constipation
has been proved scientifically.
Countless surveys carried out in Finland and abroad show
that eating plenty of crisp reduces the risk of succumbing
to cardiovascular diseases. It lowers blood cholesterol, probably
because of the stanol esters and antioxidants contained in
the nutrient fibre.
The opinion of the European scientific community is that
the fibres in cereal plants are unmatchable in preventing
bowel cancer compared with other sources of fibre. At the
same time studies point to these also providing protection
against breast cancer.
Photo: Crisp is not only good, it is also healthy. The
effects on health have been authenticated in many international
studies.
Published
2004
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