KARACHI, Jan 3: With consumers voicing their doubts over the quality of wheat flour being sold in city markets, a city government laboratory has now found that a number of atta samples drawn from various areas of Karachi do not meet the country’s food standards.

Citizens have observed the quality of flour has been deteriorating consistently during the last two months. Speaking to Dawn, several citizens noted that the colour of rotis and chapattis had changed, and the taste was no longer the same.

They said it was also difficult to mould the flour when making the dough or bread. Many noted that even breads prepared in bakeries crumbled too easily.

Meanwhile, Executive District Officer (Health) of the City District Government Karachi Dr A.D. Sajnani told Dawn that the CDGK’s food laboratory has received 84 samples of flour from field officers for examination as part of routine quality control. The samples were received from various parts of the city and were examined during the months of November and December 2008.

At least 28 of the samples (22 from government-run utility stores and six from private shopkeepers) were found to contain levels of gluten which were not up to the prescribed standard. Dr Sajnani said these samples, 33 per cent of the total number tested, contained almost half of the gluten content they should possess under the Pakistan Pure Food Rules, 1965.

Under the rules, atta (course product) or maida (fine product) should not be bitter in taste or smell unpleasant. They should also be of normal consistency. Atta should not contain more than two per cent ash, and should contain no less than eight per cent of gluten (dry). Further, atta is to have no more than 1.35 per cent moisture and no more than 0.35 per cent of acidity, expressed as lactic acid.

The EDO said the gluten in the 28 samples in question ranged between three and four per cent, which was a matter of concern from a public health perspective, and the CDGK health department might discuss the issue with the provincial food department.

Shopkeepers said the frequent changes in the quality of flour were affecting their businesses. A shopkeeper in Federal B Area said customers complained repeatedly, but that they [shopkeepers] were helpless, as the government was failing to ensure the proper blending of local and imported red wheat at the mills.

He added that mills were utilising all sorts of wheat, through imports or through domestic supply, without first judging the quality for flour production.

The Sindh Director of Food, Shafaat Hussain Unar, said that reservations had been expressed in recent weeks over the quality of red wheat imported from Ukraine and other countries, but that his department had been finally told by the federal ministry that the wheat was fit for human consumption.

Responding to a question, he said that at present millers in Sindh were required to blend the local produce with imported wheat using a ratio of 30:70 across the province, while in Karachi the provincial minister for food has ordered that a blend must use 40 per cent of indigenous and 60 per cent of imported wheat for flour production.

He said that the present stock of imported and indigenous wheat would last for about the next two and a half months. The monthly requirement of wheat in the province was about 200,000 tonnes, he added.

He said that though the food department’s field officers had been monitoring the quality of flour constantly, consumers could also report suspected flaws to the department.

Prof Abid Hasnain, a food scientist at the University of Karachi, stressed on the need to check mills responsible for the quality of flour, as he said he had gathered from colleagues and students that flour had recently been of poor quality.

He told Dawn that grain-size, hardness and protein content as well as quality of wheat were affected by type of grain and the climate in which it was grown.

“Protein content is very important as it plays a vital role in the processing of various products. If the (gluten) protein percentage is less than 10 per cent, the bread (chapatti) making property will be affected.

“The gluten (Wheat protein) gives elastic texture to the dough, which can be handled easily during processing. However, flour having gluten content less than 10 per cent makes sticky dough, which is very difficult to handle when making bread of any type.

“Grains also lose quality during improper storage. Sometimes fungal growth on wheat during storage also affects the quality of flour.

“Low quality grain results in poor quality flour. This flour is very difficult to handle during processing as there is less strength in it and ultimately the product is less nutritious, due to biochemical and enzymatic changes and degradation, which affect the quality and quantity of starch and protein. These quality losses are directly related to the storage condition, storage time and origin of the cultivar,” Prof Hasnain observed.

He further said that the imported wheat in question has a low gluten percentage.