Absorption of Iron from Bread

Abstract

The availabilities to human subjects of wheat iron and of ferric ammonium citrate in bread were determined by a double radioactive isotope method. Bread was made from white flour (71% extraction) and from whole-meal flour. The naturally occurring iron in white flour was well absorbed by seven subjects some of whom were likely to have been iron deficient, compared with the absorption of the iron salt by the same subjects. The absorption of the iron in the wheat bran was less than that of the iron salt, but few of the subjects given wheat bran were likely to have been iron deficient. The total available iron in bread made from white flour with an iron salt added to comply with the Bread and Flour Regulations (4) appeared to be very similar to the total amount likely to have been absorbed from bread made from whole-meal flour. The addition of iron to flour in Great Britain, appears in effect, therefore, to fulfill a policy of restoration, as intended, and not one of fortification. Fruit juice appeared to enhance the availability of the iron salt in the bread, and egg appeared to have a marked inhibitory effect. These effects were very much less apparent on the wheat iron than on the iron salt.