Effect of psyllium husk addition on the instrumental texture and consumer acceptability of high-fiber wheat pan bread and buns

The consumption of recommended amount of dietary fiber is a challenge not only for most consumers but also for the food scientists to design fiber-enriched foods with acceptable eating quality, texture, color and flavor. The addition of psyllium husk (PS) significantly made the bread texture softer with increasing levels, producing the lowest compression force value (2.48 ± 0.37 N) at a 5% level. Addition of coarse wheat bran (at 10 and 20% levels) to white wheat flour (WWF) produced a significantly softer bread texture (4.65 ± 0.61 to 5.27 ± 0.32 N) compared with the harder texture with the fine wheat bran addition (5.04 ± 0.33 to 6.82 ± 0.57 N) for the control samples, respectively. When psyllium at 5% level was added to either the WWF or wholegrain wheat flour (WGF), it produced a significantly softer bread texture. Interestingly, the incorporation of diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglyceride (DATEM) emulsifier (0.5%) in the WWF or WGF bread samples containing 5% psyllium did not significantly improve the textural properties of bread samples. When WWF + 5%PS (4.03 ± 0.12 N) buns were compared with WGF + 5%PS, the WGF +5%PS buns (7.37 ± 0.16 N) had a significantly harder texture. The results of compression force (N) and higher consumer acceptability values of these products clearly brought out the superior textural properties of wheat pan bread and buns made by this newer approach, than the common approach of using only the wholegrain wheat flour. Future studies on the effect of various wheat bran treatments, such as steaming or extrusion on the textural properties of pan bread and buns are recommended.