Formulation optimisation of vegetable flour-loaded functional bread Part I: screening of vegetable flours and structuring agents

The aim of this work was to optimise durum wheat-based functional bread loaded with vegetable flours. In particular, the screening of vegetable flours and structuring agents was performed. The per cent sensorial attributes change with respect to the durum wheat bread was calculated. Taste and appearance were the parameters that have most influenced the overall quality of the final product. In the Step 1, yellow pepper flour was chosen because of its taste highly pleasant. In fact, the per cent sensorial attributes change for this sample was about 6%. In the Step 2, different structuring agents were tested to improve the organoleptic properties of the investigated functional bread enriched with 25% of yellow pepper flour. The highest amount of vegetable flour added to the bread results in a low loaf volume, stickiness and compact crumb. A slight improvement compared with the bread sample without structuring agents was observed with 2% of guar seed flour from the appearance and crumb firmness point of view. Therefore, a further optimisation of the functional bread investigated in this work is necessary.