Bread has always been considered as the staple food of choice in Yemen. Because of the paucity of information on the nutritive composition of commonly consumed breads, this study was conducted. Samples were collected randomly from 10 bakeries located in different districts of Aden province, using white wheat and brown wheat flours produced in two different national milling plants located in Aden & AL-Hoddidah. Fresh crumb moisture, protein, fat, Ash, carbohydrates and energy were analyzed. Minerals such as Na, K, Mg, Mn, Fe, Zn and Cu also determined using flame AAS after wet digestion by conc. nitric acid. The results were analyzed using the statistical program (Genestat-5). The results showed that bakery industry in Yemen does have problems with bread nutritive values especially in protein content and other minerals mainly K, Zn and Cu that are important for health to Yemeni consumer.

In the last few decades, wheat-based products have received considerable attention in view of their potential role in transporting of microelements into the human diet. In Yemen, bread is the staple food, produced in different kinds from local and imported wheat. Most of it is not subjected to microelemental analysis. The objective of this study is to determine quantitatively the microelement such as Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Co, Cd and Pb in samples of wheat grains produced locally from different cultivated regions in Yemen as well as those imported from USA and Austria. Flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry was used for analysis. The results show that the contents of the microelements in the studied samples are generally within the permissible levels except cadmium. The samples collected from middle altitude and eastern plateau the cadmium is above the permissible level.