Jameela M. Al-Saqer

Effect of adding wheat bran and germ fractions on the chemical composition of high-fiber toast bread

Abstract The effect of the type of bran, level of addition, particle size and addition of wheat germ on the chemical composition of high-fiber toast bread was investigated. The bran and germ fractions were found to be high in ash, protein, fat and total dietary fiber contents. The wheat germ had a protein content of 27.88% compared with 11.35, 12.69 and 15.76% for white flour, whole wheat flour and red fine bran, respectively. The chemical composition of high-fiber breads, in terms of minerals, protein, fat and dietary fiber contents, was found to be far superior than that of the whole wheat flour (control) bread sample. Considering these results, it can be concluded that high-fiber toast bread, with lighter crumb color and improved sensory and nutritional qualities than the whole wheat flour bread, can be produced using white flour, and equal proportions of coarse and fine bran at 20%, germ at 7.5%, and sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate at 0.5% levels.

Chemical composition and quality of date syrup as affected by pectinase/cellulase enzyme treatment

The date palm tree, which is native to the Mediterranean region and originated in the Arabian Gulf area, is now becoming an important commercial crop in Kuwait. Because of the tremendous efforts of the Public Authority for Agriculture and Fisheries Resources, date palm cultivation has developed quickly in Kuwait during the last decade. These newly planted date fruit trees, as well as tissue culture plants being produced and distributed by KISR, would start bearing fruit in a few years. It may not then be possible to consume all the fresh date fruit locally and, subsequently, newer avenues for turning this surplus fruit into value-added products will become a necessity and a commercially viable venture. Technology was developed on a laboratory scale for the production of date syrup from tamer fruits of two commercial varieties, Birhi and Safri, for further use in food products. Both the varieties were found to be high in total sugar contents (about 88%). Among the various extraction procedures employed for producing date syrup, the use of pectinase/cellulase enzymes gave the highest recovery of total soluble solids (68%) compared with control without these enzymes (35%). The CIE L∗a∗b∗ color values for diluted as well as concentrated date syrup of Birhi variety were found to be lower than the Safri variety, indicating lighter color for the former. The results indicate the possibility of employing pectinase/cellulase enzymes to produce concentrated date syrup from tamer fruits for use in food product development.

Comparison of methods for the assessment of the extent of staling in bread

Most of the physico-chemical methods used for indirect measurement of staling in western pan bread have been used for measuring the extent of staling in arabic bread. The water activity and alkaline water retention capacity values decreased significantly with the ageing of bread samples. The amount of soluble starch and amylose contents also decreased significantly as the bread aged during storage. In spite of their limitations, sensory analysis parameters were found to follow the staling of white as well as extra bran arabic bread more closely than any other single method. Instron puncture force measurements correlated well with other chemical methods and sensory analysis parameters in white arabic bread, but did not provide significant correlations for extra bran Arabic bread. Based on the data presented for the different physical, chemical and sensory methods investigated in this study, the alkaline water retention capacity produced the best correlation with most of these parameters. This test is, therefore, recommended as an appropriate objective method for assessing the extent of staling of arabic bread.

Developing Functional Foods Using Red Palm Olein: Objective Color and Instrumental Texture

Abstract Edible red palm olein (RPOL) has been newly developed by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board for use in food products to enhance their nutritional value. The results of the effect of RPOL and red palm shortening (RPS) on the objective color and instrumental texture of these functional foods are presented. The results indicate that using up to 100% RPS in the test bread samples did not have any adverse effect on the textural quality of the samples, with the results being comparable with the respective control breads. However, increasing the level of RPOL caused a simultaneous increase in compression force with the values being highest at the 100% replacement level. Replacement with RPOL in bread formulations at the 100% level increased the compression force to 15.2 N for whole-wheat bread, 7.5 N for white bread, and 11.7 N for 20% bran (0.2 kg bran/kg flour) bread over that of control whole-wheat bread (8.3 N), control white bread (3.3 N), and control 20% bran bread (4.2 N). This indicates that RPOL does not perform as well in pan bread as compared with RPS. Using 0.5% diacetyl tartaric acid esters of monoglycerides (DATEM) in bread formulations produced a decrease in compression force values at all combination levels of RPS and RPOL, thus producing a softer product. As RPOL and RPL are extremely rich in carotene pigments (727 ppm), the major changes in crumb color were observed in the yellowness values (b*). The results indicate that increasing the level of RPS or RPOL in test bread samples caused a similar increase in crumb color yellowness values (b*), with a higher increase observed due to increased levels of RPOL.