Nutritional and physicochemical characteristics of wholemeal bread enriched with pea flour

Summary: In this work, wholemeal bread enriched with hydrated and nonhydrated pea flour was investigated. Moreover, hydrocolloids, such as hydroxypropylcellulose, agar-agar and guar seed flour, were added to the bread to improve its organoleptic properties. The bread samples were analysed from the nutritional, microstructural and textural properties point of view, and their correlations were also evaluated. Results showed that guar gum at 2% gave the better results. In particular, the overall quality of the bread enriched with hydrated pea flour and guar gum was statistically similar to that of the CTRL reference sample (7.70). The fibres and ash content of all pea-enriched bread samples were significantly higher compared with the CTRL sample; moreover, all functional bread samples recorded significantly lower glycaemic response with respect to the CTRL sample. In addition, the mixture of both guar gum and hydrated pea flour significantly improved the dough properties and reduced the firmness of the bread.