Maypole has once again put its customers’ health first by becoming the first bakery on the island to craft a typical Maltese ‘ħobza’ with significantly less salt. This move is in-line with the Ministry of Health’s drive to encourage people to enjoy a typical Mediterranean diet, which includes fresh vegetables, fish, olive oil and bread. It follows similar Maypole initiatives that included the introduction of a wholemeal Maltese ħobza a few years back, as well as another option with no salt at all.

This updated lower-salt Maltese ‘ħobza’ has been in development for some time, with Maypole’s dedicated food engineers working hard to reduce the amount of salt in the bread, while still retaining its fantastic, traditional taste. To combat this cutback, the company has used healthier replacement ingredients, including potassium chloride, to ensure its trademark taste is retained.

“At Maypole we constantly strive to bring healthy, convenient options to our clients on a daily basis, and feel it is important to offer them as much choice as possible so they can make educated decisions about their diet,” says director James Debono. “We actually rolled out this bread as part of a pilot project a few months back and clients were unable to tell the difference, so we’re pleased to be guaranteeing them the taste they love, but with added health benefits.”

However despite being a healthier alternative, Mr Debono stresses that this bread is made is exactly the same way, using the traditional method that has been passed down from one family member to another since the 1900s. The recipe only uses four ingredients, namely wheat flour, ‘mother dough’, yeast and water, as well as some salt.

Consuming too much salt, overtime this can lead to potentially serious health problems, says Maypole’s food technologist Pietro Carbone. “This new recipe reduces the salt per 100g  of the Maltese loaf from 1.31g in the traditional recipe to 0.78g in the new recipe, thus signifying more than a 35% decrease. The result is that this bread has no additives, no added fat and, now, less salt.”

Maypole’s new lower salt Ħobza Maltija will be sold at all 14 Maypole outlets. Aside from its authentic taste, it is also ‘tal-qasma’ – with a traditional knife-slice made in the top of the dough before baking.

“As always, we are striving to blend innovation with tradition in this new product, and are keen to constantly bring fresh, exciting items to our clients to try and love. We believe this combination of health and taste will be a success among our customers, and we look forward to their feedback,” Mr Debono added.