Consumer acceptability of wheat/cassava composite bread

Abstract

Bread is traditionally made from common wheat (Triticum aestivum) flour dough that is cultured with yeast, allowed to rise, and finally baked in an oven, but in some cuisines breads are steamed and fried. The possibility of using flours derived from roots and other food resources for producing bread has not been extensively explored, although there are a number of root crops that are of economic importance all the world over from which flours are made for various uses. Producing composite bread from flours from such root crops such as cassava will boost its uptake since the consumption of bread is rising in Ghana and other sub-Saharan African countries where large volumes of cassava are cultivated. In this study, composite bread was prepared with High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) and wheat flour in the ratio of 1:4 (20% HQCF) and served with either tea, cocoa drink, koko (local porridge) or Tom Brown (brown porridge) to 1,497 senior high school students from 8 senior high schools in the Volta and Greater Accra regions of Ghana to test their acceptability. The results showed that the students rated the bread high on the nine point Hedonic scale, particularly those in single sex schools. The bread was generally accepted by the students and the students were ready to take the composite bread as part of their breakfast menu. The result is good for the cassava industry in Ghana since stakeholders of the industry in Ghana and the nation on the whole has a lot to gain if the composite bread is consumed by Ghanaians