Designing low-cost “heart healthy bread”: optimization using linear programing and 15-country comparison

BMC Nutrition

Table 4 Estimated mass production costs for “heart healthy bread” designs^a

Components	Commercial white loaf in NZ		HHB$1.5 loaf		HHB$3 loaf
	NZ$	%	NZ$ (US$)	%	NZ$ (US$)	%
Food ingredients	0.70	70	1.15	79	2.27	88
Packaging	0.01	1	0.01	1	0.01	1
Production wages	0.24	24	0.24	16	0.24	9
Vehicle fuel costs, energy and water	0.05	5	0.05	3	0.05	2
Total	1.00	100	1.46 (0.99)	100	2.57 (1.75)	100
Total price after profit mark-up of 10 %			1.60 (1.09)		2.83 (1.93)
– of 25 % mark-up			1.82 (1.24)		3.21 (2.19)
– of 50 % mark-up			2.19 (1.49)		3.86 (2.63)
Loaf weight (g) – average	600		1036		1190
– range			1004 to 1057		1184 to 1195
Price NZ$/100 g at 25 % mark-up (US$)			0.18 (0.12)		0.27 (0.18)

^a Relatively simple cost-structure based on the Canadian baking industry [48] and this was used to estimate the ability of the NZ baking industry to obtain cheaper ingredients relative to the supermarket prices used in the earlier HHB analyses (see Methods). All the prices shown are inclusive of a NZ sales tax (GST) of 15 %. For this analysis we assumed HHBs would be mass produced by existing bread manufacturers with existing plant and machinery and distribution networks

ISSN: 2055-0928