APPLICATION OF D-OPTIMAL MIXTURE DESIGN TO OPTIMIZE THE WHEAT-PUMPKIN COMPOSITE FLOUR FOR BREAD PRODUCTION

Abstract

As compared to wheat flour, pumpkin flour is considered a high quality raw material in terms of nutrients and bioactive compounds essential in providing human health benefits. Due to its potential, pumpkin flour can be used as a functional ingredient and in bread making can be used in composite blends with wheat flour. In this study, the effect of wheat-pumpkin composite flour bread on some physical parameters of bread was investigated. For this purpose, three raw materials - pumpkin pulp flour, pumpkin seed flour, wheat flour were used and as statistical program the D-optimal mixture design (Design Expert 7.0) was used. As response variables, some physical parameters such as bread porosity, elasticity and H/D ratio were evaluated. The experimental data obtained were used to carry out the analyses of variance (ANOVA) and to develop the regression models. Special cubic model were used to explain all physical parameters considered, highlighting that the composite flour components interacted with each other and had effects on bread porosity, elasticity and H/D ratio. The best formulation of composite flour formula was chosen depending on the desirability function which showed a value of 0.94. The optimized formulation which showed desirable physical parameters contained 78.3% wheat flour, 15% pumpkin pulp flour and 6.70% pumpkin seed flour.