Abstract

Wheat flour is unique for bread baking, but due to high cost of wheat, its continuous use in a developing economy is no longer encouraged. Cassava is a high carbohydrate bearing crop while soybean has a good history of health-giving nutrients. Both plants are indigenous to the tropics, they are cheap and available, but are grossly underutilized in the bread industry. To study sensory effect of supplementation of non-wheat flour in bread, the Simplex-Centroid Design of the mixture experimental design {3,3} of the response surface methodology (RSM) was adopted. Fifteen (15) samples of bread samples were baked with each blend of the WCS composite flour. The bread samples were subjected to sensory evaluation by a panel of semi-trained panelists who had eaten bread for a long time. Optimization analysis on the data obtained from the sensory session showed that blend of 0.67:0.17:0.17 of wheat, cassava and soybean composite flour, respectively produced the best composite bread followed by pure blends of wheat bread in terms of taste, colour, texture, aroma, acceptability and preference. More work should be advanced on other factors of using composite flour for bread manufacturing as well as the promotion of the products on account of health claims of the product.

Key word: Sensory evaluation, composite flour, mixture experimental design, simplex-centroid design, response surface methodology (RSM), optimization.