Formulation and optimization of functional bread by employing response surface methodology

Bread is considered to be one of the oldest ‘processed’ foods by the humanity. It is one of the major products of baked foods and is consumed worldwide. Sprouting of pumpkin seed help to increase the nutrient content of the seed. Sprouted grains are seen in a number of baked goods at natural health food stores. The objective of this study was to optimize the refined wheat flour, germinated pumpkin seed flour and butter with respect to bread-making quality. The optimal Design was employed with the following variables of protein, weight loss, porosity and specific volume of the bread. Models developed adequately described the relationships and were confirmed by validation studies. Refined wheat flour showed the greatest effect on models, which effect impaired weight loss and specific volume of germinated pumpkin seed bread. The optimum set of the independent variables was obtained graphically in order to obtain the desired levels of 90g for refined wheat flour, 10g for germinated pumpkin seed flour and 8g for butter. Organoleptic evaluation showed that variation7 with 90g of refined wheat flour; 10g germinated pumpkin seed and 8 g of butter had scored high score for overall acceptability among the variations in the germinated pumpkin seed bread.