A Revamped Chilean "Marraqueta" Is Accepted By Consumers, A Study Says

Two crisp marraquetas at lunch time.
The marraqueta is considered to be the quintessential
Chilean bread (photo by author)

By CTN. April 15, 2017

SANTIAGO, Chile. A study found that Chilean consumers would accept and would buy a less salty marraqueta.

The study was conducted jointly by Universidad Católica and Univesidad de Chile, Chile's two most prestigious and traditional universities.

Singled out for its high content of salt, which exceeds the 400 milligrams (mg) of sodium per 100 grams of bread recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the marraqueta is considered to be the favorite type of bread among the Chilean population, achieving the status of a cultural item that is inseparable from Chilean daily life and tradition.

The Chilean Health Ministry had proposed a limit of 400 mg of salt per 100 grams of marraqueta, in accordance with the WHO recommendation.  However, last year, the President of the Santiago association of bakers said that taking the salt away from the marraqueta would spell the demise of Chile's most beloved bread, because a less salty marraqueta would lose its crunchiness, its crispiness, its taste, becoming an altogether different kind of bread.

In the study, samples with 400 mg, 200 mg and 0 mg of salt per 100 grams of marraqueta were offered to 30 selected consumers. 

The consumers in the study were asked to rate the samples on a 1-7 scale, with 1 meaning "I hate it" and 7 "I like it a lot". 

In Chile, the 1-7 scale is used for grades from elementary to university education and therefore is very easy to understand for a Chilean national.

The consumers in the study rated with 5.5 the marraquetas with 400 mg of salt and with 5.3 the marraquetas with 200 mg.

After trying these revamped marraquetas, the consumers were asked whether they would buy them. On a scale of 1-5, the answers were 4.0 for the 400 mg marraqueta and 3.6 for the 200 mg variety, suggesting that marraquetas, even if baked with a lot less salt, will still be present on the tables of Chilean households for many, many years to come. (Data for this article were taken from El Mercurio newspapers and the Chilean press).