The present study aimed to determine the mineral composition of the French type bread with partial replacement of sodium chloride by potassium chloride using the technique of X-ray fluorescence energy dispersive. The excitation energy used was 50 keV and detector operation at -176°C. The detected variations were from 10.16 to 613.69 mg 100 g-1 for sodium and from 211.58 to 958.96 mg 100 g-1 for potassium. The concentrations of iron, magnesium, phosphorus and calcium ranged from 10.62 to 21.45, 16.59 to 30.78, 92.53 to 125.77 and from 16.54 to 100.88 mg 100 g-1, respectively. The use of this simple technique proved to be reliable on detecting the variations imposed on the French type bread formulation. The results of this study indicate that, at the levels studied, the addition of potassium chloride assisted in getting French type bread with lower levels of sodium and proved the technological feasibility of producing French type bread with 43% salt reduction (1.0% in the commercial formulation) with 0.5% potassium chloride, which provide bread with the amount of sodium proposed to meet the set limits (174.09 mg.50 g–1), related to the salt standard formulation of 1.88% (306.5 mg.50 g-1).

 

Key words: French bread, replacement, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, food analysis, minerals, energy dispersive.