Assessing The Potential Usage Of Cucurbita Moschata In The Production Of Bread

Abstract

There has been a tremendous rise in the prices of bread recently following the scarcity of wheat flour as results of the Russia-Ukraine war. Cucurbita moschata (butternut squash) is a versatile fruity vegetable which is grown both locally and internationally. Despite the nutritional and health benefits of Cucurbita moschata and being a potential candidate for flour production, there is little to no awareness and assessment of introducing Cucurbita moschata flour into bread production. Therefore, this work aimed to assess the potential usage of Cucurbita moschata in bread preparation. Other ingredients (eggs, salt, sugar, yeast, butter, and milk were purchased in a supermarket at the Kumasi Asafo market. Approximately 125 kg samples of Cucurbita moschata were obtained from the Kumasi Central Market in the Ashanti region of Ghana and was dehydrated and passed through a 63 µm (microns) sized-sieve to obtain butternut squash flour. Proximate composition, functional properties, colour and yield determination of Cucurbita moschata were analysed on dry-weight basis. The sensory attributes of the various bread formulations were analysed by 50 untrained panellists. Proximate composition of butternut squash flour was determined prior to the bread making which showed 8.23% moisture, 1.53% crude fat, 5.54% crude fibre, 6.90% ash, 11.90% protein, and 65.9% carbohydrate with energy of 324.4 Kcal. Functional properties of the flour showed 2.59 g/g of water absorption capacity, 1.26 g/g of oil absorption capacity, 3.43 g/g of swelling power and 17.24 g/g of solubility. Results from the sensory analysis showed that the composite bread samples had a significant (p<0.05) higher acceptance over the control for all the sensory parameters tested for. The B2 (20:80) bread formulation had the best overall acceptability as well as preferred in terms of the aftertaste which were all significantly (p<0.05) different from the other bread samples. The results showed that the participants really preferred the composite bread samples over the control sample. The findings indicate that Cucurbita moschata flour could be used to produce acceptable bread.