ABSTRACT

Use of African yam bean and bambara groundnut flours as a composite of wheat in bread production was evaluated. Bread was produced from different flour blends (90:5:0, 90: I 0:0, 95:0:5 and 90:0:10) of wheat, African yam bean seeds and bambara nut seeds. Bread made with I 00% wheat flour served as the control. Functional properties of the flour samples and proximate composition, physical properties, microbiological quality and sensory properties of the breads were evaluated using standard laboratory procedures. The data generated were statistically analysed by One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using Statistical Product of Service Solution (Version 22). The functional properties of the bread ranged from 0.81 to 1.40 g/ml, 1.73 to 2.14 g/ml, 1.03 to 1.90 g/ml, 1.50 to 1.87 g/ml, 58.99 to 70.01 °C and 69.15 to 79.03 % for bulk density, oil absorption capacity, water absorption capacity, swelling index, gelatinization temperature and wettability, respectively. The result of proximate analysis showed that the bread samples possess 9.23 to 9.81 % moisture content, 10.20 to 17.88 % crude protein, 2.15 to 2.92 % crude fibre, 3.06 to 3.50 % fat, 2.80 to 3.26 % ash and 63.81 to 72.31 % carbohydrate. The physical properties of the bread ranged from 7.60 to 11.00 cm, 5.89 to 6.19 cm, 290.15 to 325.92 g, 178.09 to 246.27 cm, 0.57 to 0.85 cm/g and 0.51 to 0.77 cm for length, width, weight, loaf volume, specific volume and oven spring, respectively. The result of microbiological analysis showed that no total viable count, fungal count, coliform and lactic acid count was detected in the bread samples. The mean score for sensory properties of the bread samples showed that their appearance (6.35 to 7.30), taste (7.20 to 8.50), texture (6.00 to 7.85), aroma (7.34 to 8.85) and general acceptability (6.06 to 8.40) varied with bread produced with 100% wheat flour having the highest rating followed by bread produced from 95 % wheat and 5 % African yam bean seeds flour blends