EVALUATION OF MINERALS, ANTI-NUTRIENTS AND MICROBIOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES OF BREAD PRODUCED FROM WHEAT (Triticum spp.), ACHA (Digitaria exillis), FLUTED PUMPKIN (Telfairia occidentalis) AND FISH (Clarias gariepinus) BLENDS

Abstract

Bread is the staple food eaten in most countries around the world. Evidence has shown that various research teams have worked on fortifying bread due to the demands for healthier food. The aim of this work was to evaluate the minerals, anti-nutrient and microbiological attributes of bread produced from wheat, Acha, fish and pumpkin flour blends. Four composite flour blends were formulated in the ratio of 86:11:0:3, 77:12:8:3, 70:17:10:3, 100:0:0:0 (wheat, acha, fluted pumpkin and fish). The flour blends were used to produce breads using the straight dough method of AOCC. The samples were analyzed according to standard methods. The data were subjected to analysis of variance at 5% level of significance using SPSS. Results showed that minerals were present in appreciable amount in the bread samples calcium (25.99-80.5mg/100g), phosphorous (35.92-58.97mg/100), sodium (10.45-54.88mg/100g), potassium (85.00-115.94mg/100g), iron (10.31-22.43mg/100g) and zinc (1.64-8.07mg/100g). The molar ratio of sodium/potassium and calcium/phosphorous ranged from 0.12 to 0.47 and 0.72 to 1.43, respectively. The molar ratios were lower than critical levels. The antinutritional factors: phytate (0.31-0.90mg/g), saponin (0.63-1.26mg/g) and tannin (1.01-3.77mg/g) contents of the bread samples showed no significant (p < 0:05) difference except for oxalate (6.12- 8.16mg/g) where there was significant difference between samples B and D. Bacteria E. coli and Salmonella spp were not detected in all of the bread samples produced but fungi (yeast and mould) were isolated in all the samples. It could be concluded that the incorporation of pumpkin and fish to bread enhanced the nutritional values of the bread.