bread

Also known as bun, breads, buns

Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diets. It is one of the oldest human-made foods, having been of significance since the dawn of agriculture, and plays an essential role in both religious rituals and secular culture.

OverviewAI-generated

Bread is a staple food and baked good made from water, flour, table salt, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It may also contain oil. The fabrication method is breadmaking. It first appeared in Europe about 30 thousand years ago. The subject is distinct from food and the term Bread.

Nutritional data indicates that bread contains 278 kcal of energy, 5.1 g of fat, 46.7 g of carbohydrates, and 9.5 g of proteins. It also includes 1.4 g of saturated fat, 4.4 g of sugars, 5.3 g of fiber, and 3.19 g of salt. The product has a Nutri-Score of c and a NOVA classification of 4. Its carbon footprint is 0.6.

The Unicode character for bread is 🍞. It is categorized under Category:Breads and the breads category in Openfoodfacts, which lists 14,529 products. The topic is described by sources including the Pauly–Wissowa, Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, and the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition. It appears on focus lists for Wikipedia vital articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 32 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, Openfoodfacts, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Key facts

Food.name: Bread
Food.image: alt=Loaves of bread in a basket|250px
Food.caption: Various leavened breads
Food.main_ingredient: Flour, water

via Wikipedia infobox

Nutrition · Open Food Facts

Typical values per 100 g · averaged across 14,529 products

cNutri-Score

4NOVA · Ultra-processed food

Energy: 278 kcal
Fat: 5.1 g
— of which saturates: 1.4 g
Carbohydrates: 46.7 g
— of which sugars: 4.4 g
Fibre: 5.3 g
Protein: 9.5 g
Salt: 3.19 g

Browse on Open Food Facts →

via Open Food Facts · ODbL

Research

18,102 papers

Evaluation of nutrients in bread: a systematic review.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2022Aghalari Z, Dahms HU, Sillanpää MDOI: 10.1186/s41043-022-00329-3
Industrial Bread Composition: Potential Implications for Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.ReviewNutrients · 2025Shakhman S, Pfeffer-Gik T, Elial-Fatal S et al.DOI: 10.3390/nu17132120
Vitamin d-fortified bread: Systematic review of fortification approaches and clinical studies.Food chemistry · 2022Souza SVS, Borges N, Vieira EFDOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.131325
Separating Myths From Facts About Bread and Health.ReviewNutrition bulletin · 2026Shewry PR, Lovegrove A, Joy EJM et al.DOI: 10.1111/nbu.70038
Par-baked Bread Technology: Formulation and Process Studies to Improve Quality.ReviewCritical reviews in food science and nutrition · 2016Almeida EL, Steel CJ, Chang YKDOI: 10.1080/10408398.2012.715603
Acceptability of veggie bread among Lebanese adults.Frontiers in public health · 2025Chanbour A, Hassan HF, Kreidieh D et al.DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1573593
Modification of appetite by bread consumption: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Critical reviews in food science and nutrition · 2017Gonzalez-Anton C, Artacho R, Ruiz-Lopez MD et al.DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2015.1084490
Germinated/fermented legume flours as functional ingredients in wheat-based bread: A review.ReviewJournal of food science · 2025Chinma CE, Ezeocha VC, Adedeji OE et al.DOI: 10.1111/1750-3841.70022

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Subclass of: baked good
Has part: sugar
Material used: oil
Image: Ruisleipä-limppu reikäleipä reissumies hapankorppu-1.JPG

Show 14 more facts

Unicode character: 🍞
Commons category: Bread
topic's main category: Category:Breads
Commons gallery: Bread
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
fabrication method: breadmaking
different from: Bread
date of first performance: 0030-00-00
first appearance: Europe
carbon footprint: 0.6
P8168: Kang Ji-wook
NCI Thesaurus ID: C178203
inception: 30000-00-0
hashtag: bread

Sources (6)

via Wikidata · CC0

~26 min read

Encyclopedic overview

29 sections

Contents

Etymology
History
Types
Ingredients
Physical-chemical composition
Culinary uses
Nutritional significance
Crust and crumb
Preparation
Formulation
Flour
Fortification
Liquids
Fats or shortenings
Bread improvers
Salt
Leavening
Chemicals
Yeast
Sourdough
Steam
Bacteria
Aeration
Cultural significance
Fraud
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Bread may be leavened by naturally occurring microbes (e.g. sourdough), chemicals (e.g. baking soda), industrially produced yeast, or high-pressure aeration, which creates the gas bubbles that fluff up bread. Bread may also be unleavened. In many countries, mass-produced bread often contains additives to improve flavor, texture, color, shelf life, nutrition, and ease of production.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “bread” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.