KEY POINTS:
When we reach for "multigrain" breads at the supermarket, most of us think we are buying a food dense with health-giving wholegrains, a survey has found.
But we are likely to be getting more refined flour with many of the healthiest parts removed, rather than complete or broken-up grains. The survey of 500 people, for food manufacturer Sanitarium, found that 71 per cent thought multigrain bread had a high wholegrain content.
"Yet many multigrain breads on the market are made from refined grains, with few wholegrains added," Sanitarium said.
New Zealand Association of Bakers president Laurie Powell, who heads the company which owns bread-maker Tip Top, was surprised by the public confusion.
"It's not something that's ever come up before in terms of labelling."
Multi-grain was similar to the term light-grain, he said. It included breads such as Molenberg and Tip Top's 9 grain, which were distinct from heavy-grain products like the Vogels and Burgen brands. Heavy-grain loaves were about 20 per cent of bread sold, light-grain 20-25 per cent and white varieties 55 per cent, Mr Powell said.
The survey by Colmar Brunton also found that 90 per cent of respondents wanted better labelling of wholegrain content of foods.
Sanitarium is using the survey to promote its new wholegrain label for products that have 25 per cent or more wholegrain content.
The company's nutrition service manager, Kim Stirling, said the research showed up "a gap in our understanding of the importance of wholegrains and how to recognise them".
It found that while 82 per cent claimed to be aware of wholegrains, only 17 per cent said they completely understood what they were. The Health Ministry recommends adults eat at least six servings of bread/cereals a day, preferably wholegrain varieties.
Higher wholegrain consumption is linked with lower risks of developing heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer. But just 4 per cent in the survey were aware of the link to heart-health, and only 4 per cent knew of the link to reduced cancer risk.
Otago University senior nutrition lecturer Winsome Parnell said it was not surprising the public had difficulty understanding wholegrains. "Even the experts have difficult defining wholegrains in respect to foods."
Dietitian Rob Quigley said the solution to the confusion over food health labelling, which was worsening as manufacturers' systems diversified, was for the Government to establish a green-red-orange dot standard to denote whether a food was healthy, unhealthy or in-between.
No one knew how much wholegrain New Zealanders were eating, he said, but it was probably too little and to get more fibre, he urged cooking up more stews with beans and lentils and eating more genuinely wholemeal bread.
