Annals of Agricultural Sciences 66 (2021) 75–80

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Annals of Agricultural Sciences

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Effect of psyllium husk addition on the instrumental texture and

consumer acceptability of high-fiber wheat pan bread and buns
Mohammad M. Abdullah a, Ahmed D.H. Aldughpassi a, Jiwan S. Sidhu a,b,⁎,
Muhammad Y. Al-Foudari b, Amani R.A. Al-Othman c
a
Department of Food Science & Nutrition, College of Life Sciences, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait
b
Food Science & Nutrition Program, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, P.O. Box 24885, 13109 Safat, Kuwait
c
Information and Communications Technology Department, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, P.O. Box 24885, 13109 Safat, Kuwait

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The consumption of recommended amount of dietary fiber is a challenge not only for most consumers but also for
Received 14 December 2020 the food scientists to design fiber-enriched foods with acceptable eating quality, texture, color and flavor. The ad-
Received in revised form 29 May 2021 dition of psyllium husk (PS) significantly made the bread texture softer with increasing levels, producing the low-
Accepted 30 May 2021
est compression force value (2.48 ± 0.37 N) at a 5% level. Addition of coarse wheat bran (at 10 and 20% levels) to
Available online 24 June 2021
white wheat flour (WWF) produced a significantly softer bread texture (4.65 ± 0.61 to 5.27 ± 0.32 N) compared
Keywords:
with the harder texture with the fine wheat bran addition (5.04 ± 0.33 to 6.82 ± 0.57 N) for the control samples,
Psyllium respectively. When psyllium at 5% level was added to either the WWF or wholegrain wheat flour (WGF), it pro-
Coarse wheat bran duced a significantly softer bread texture. Interestingly, the incorporation of diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono-
Fine wheat bran and diglyceride (DATEM) emulsifier (0.5%) in the WWF or WGF bread samples containing 5% psyllium did not
Instrumental texture significantly improve the textural properties of bread samples. When WWF + 5%PS (4.03 ± 0.12 N) buns
Baked products 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 com-
mon approach of using only the wholegrain wheat flour. Future studies on the effect of various wheat bran treat-
ments, such as steaming or extrusion on the textural properties of pan bread and buns are recommended.
© 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
The relationship between diet and disease is being recognized by
health professionals, food scientists and nutritionists all over the
world. To achieve and maintain better health, it is recommended that
whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables must be included in the
diet to get enough of dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins and other
health-promoting phytochemicals (Cho et al., 2013; Dumas et al.,
2020). As far as grains are concerned, unfortunately, most consumers
prefer to eat baked products made from highly refined wheat grain
than those made from whole grain, mainly because of the less attractive
textural properties, taste and eating quality of products made from
whole wheat grain (Nirmala Prasadi and Joye, 2020; Packkia-Doss
et al., 2019; Ramin et al., 2020). Despite the health-promoting proper-
ties of wheat bran fractions and psyllium, it is still a challenge to over-
come the technological, sensory and nutritional problems associated
⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Food Science & Nutrition, College of Life
Sciences, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait.
E-mail address: jiwan.sidhu@ku.edu.kw (J.S. Sidhu).
with the use of these fiber sources in bakery products. It is, therefore, de-
sirable to develop new approaches and technologies to produce high-
fiber baked products with attractive texture, taste and consumer
quality.
Both the coarse wheat bran (CB) and fine wheat bran (FB) fractions
are not only rich in insoluble dietary fiber but are also rich in certain vi-
tamins, minerals, proteins and health promoting phytochemicals
(Navrotskyi et al., 2019; Sidhu et al., 1999). The most common source
of insoluble dietary fiber in baking is the wheat bran fractions. But, the
addition of wheat bran fractions to white flour adversely affects the
functional and technological properties of the dough, leading to poor
crumb color and texture of bread (Katina et al., 2006), a challenge the
bakers must overcome. Psyllium husk (Plantago ovata Forssk.) is a rich
source of soluble dietary fiber (70 g/100 g) and binds a lot of water
(2–3 g water/g) to form a solid and stiff gel (Al-Assaf et al., 2003). This
gelling (water-binding) property of PS may be useful, to some extent,
in counteracting the deleterious effects of bran fractions on bread qual-
ity. The gel-forming component of psyllium husk (PS) is not fermented
and is responsible for the laxative, glycemic control and cholesterol-
lowering properties of this fiber (Marlett and Fischer, 2003; Nazario-

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aoas.2021.05.002
0570-1783/© 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
M.M. Abdullah, A.D.H. Aldughpassi, J.S. Sidhu et al. Annals of Agricultural Sciences 66 (2021) 75–80

Franco et al., 2020). Psyllium fiber is known to be hepatoprotective Table 1

agent and rich in antioxidants (Wahid et al., 2020) and maintains intes- Dough composition of various formulations used in the study.

tinal barrier to many toxins for improving the gut health (Ogata et al., Formulation no. WWF (g) WGF (g) FWA (%) PS (g) FB (g) CB (g)
2017). Thus, using a combination of wheat bran fractions along with 1 100 – 64.5 0 – –
psyllium husk to produce high-fiber bread and buns with desirable tex- 2 97 – 76 3 – –
ture and consumer acceptability would be an interesting area to be 3 95 – 84 5 – –
investigated. 4 – 100 68.5 0 – –
5 – 97 80 3 – –
The effect of adding wheat bran fractions and psyllium husk on the
6 – 95 87.5 5 – –
dietary fiber contents, dough rheological characteristics, objective 7 89 – 67.5 1 10 –
crumb color, chemical composition and specific loaf volume of bread 8 88 – 72 2 10 –
and buns have already been reported separately (Aldughpassi et al., 9 87 – 81 3 10 –
2020). We hypothesized that the addition of wheat bran fractions, psyl- 10 86 – 86 4 10 –
11 85 – 98.5 5 10 –
lium may affect the objective texture of these baked goods adversely. So, 12 79 – 70 1 20 –
the major objective of this research work was to develop a few opti- 13 78 – 76 2 20 –
mized formulations of pan bread and buns, using two types of wheat 14 77 – 84 3 20 –
bran fractions, psyllium husk, and DATEM as a surfactant to produce 15 76 – 89 4 20 –
16 75 – 92 5 20 –
high-fiber pan bread and buns with a softer crumb texture and better
17 89 – 75 1 – 10
consumer quality. 18 88 – 82 2 – 10
19 87 – 90 3 – 10
2. Materials and methods 20 86 – 95 4 – 10
21 85 – 100 5 – 10
22 79 – 78 1 – 20
2.1. Raw materials
23 78 – 84 2 – 20
24 77 – 89 3 – 20
Psyllium husk (PS) procured from local market, and wholegrain 25 76 – 94 4 – 20
wheat flour (WGF), white wheat flour (WF), coarse wheat bran (CB), 26 75 – 99 5 – 20
and fine wheat bran (FB) samples collected from the Kuwait Flour WWF=White wheat flour, WGF = Wholegrain wheat flour, FWA = Farinograph water
Mills & Bakeries Co., Shuwaikh were analyzed, in triplicates, for mois- absorption to achieve dough consistency of 500 BU, PS = Psyllium husk, FB = Fine
ture (method 44-19), protein (Nx5.70) (method 46-12) and ash con- wheat bran, CB = Coarse wheat bran.

tents (method 08.01), according to standard AACC methods (AACC,

2000) and the results are presented on % dry basis. Other baking ingre-
dients, such as, fine granulated sugar, common salt, bakery shortening
(Wesson USA), instant dry yeast and non-fat dry milk were purchased
from the local market. American Ingredients Co., Kansas City, Missouri,
USA, provided the diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides
(DATEM) free of cost.
2.2. Methods
2.2.1. Baking studies
Bread and bun were prepared using the optimized straight-dough
bread-making method 10-10B (AACC, 2000), with two bakes on two
different days. In this straight dough method, flour (200 g), instant
yeast (3.5 g), sugar (12 g), shortening (6 g), salt (3 g), nonfat milk pow-
der (8 g), 07 g malt, and ascorbic acid as oxidizing agent (50 ppm) were
mixed to attain optimum dough development for these samples. For
bread making, all the equipment like dough mixer, fermentation cabi-
net, sheeting and molding rolls, reel-type baking oven, made by Na-
tional Manufacturing Company (Lincoln, Nebraska, USA) were used.
Amount of water used for obtaining a dough consistency of 500 BU in
the farinograph (Brabender Manufacturing Co., Germany) was used
for making pan bread and buns. Wheat coarse bran, wheat fine bran
and psyllium husk were used at varying levels of replacement of WWF
or WGF (Table 1). Various optimized high-fiber formulations standard-
ized earlier in the laboratory (Aldughpassi et al., 2020) were then pro-
duced on a pilot-scale in a commercial bakery (Sweet Dalia Bakers and
Confectioners, Azzad Trading Group Co., Kuwait. The optimized formu-
lations of pan bread and buns developed in the laboratory were evalu-
ated for objective texture as described below.
2.2.2. Objective texture measurement
The bread samples, after baking, were cooled to room temperature
of 22 ± 1 °C. From the middle portion of each bread sample, four slices
of uniform thickness (1″) were obtained and immediately taken for ob-
jective texture measurement. Stable Micro Systems TAXT2 Texture An-
alyzer (UK), with a plastic plunger (one inch diameter) and a plunger
speed of 1.7 mm/s was used. The crumb firmness, in terms of peak
compression force value (in Newtons) at 30% compression (with a com-
pression depth of 7.5 mm), was measured at the center of all the four
slices of each sample (Al-Hooti et al., 2004). The average ± standard de-
viation of these values has been reported for all pan bread and ham-
burger bun samples.
2.2.3. Consumer acceptability
A few of the optimized formulations made in the laboratory were
scaled up to produce pan bread and buns on a pilot scale in a local com-
mercial bakery. The commercially produced baked samples were tested
for consumer acceptability on the day of production among the ran-
domly selected 120 KISR employees. These panelists were mostly
possessing graduate or higher degrees and their ages ranged from 24
to 52 years. Written informed consent from the panelists was also ob-
tained prior to the consumers acceptability tests. The consumers were
provided with control as well as test samples, and were asked to give
their opinion for the overall consumer quality either as “Acceptable”
or as “Unacceptable” by considering the chewing quality, texture,
crumb color, and taste.
2.3. Statistical analysis
The chemical analyses are reported on % dry basis. All the experi-
mental data obtained were statistically analyzed for analysis of variance,
using Duncan's New Multiple Range Test (SAS Program Windows Ver-
sion 6.08) and significance was accepted at P = 0.05 level. For the re-
sults, the mean values with standard deviations are reported. Chi-
Square analysis was used for assessing the sensory consumer accept-
ability of the pan bread and hamburger buns and reported as
percentages.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Chemical analysis
In a number of preliminary studies, the level of psyllium husk was
varied, but beyond the 5% level of addition, the quality of dough

76
M.M. Abdullah, A.D.H. Aldughpassi, J.S. Sidhu et al. Annals of Agricultural Sciences 66 (2021) 75–80

obtained was weaker and could not produce acceptable quality pan Table 2
bread and buns, so the psyllium husk was used only up to this 5% Effect of psyllium and bran fraction addition on the crumb firmness (Newtons) of pan
bread.
level. Similarly, during the preliminary trials, the use levels of more
than 20% coarse or fine bran resulted in poor dough characteristics pro- Psyllium level Crumb firmness
ducing unacceptable quality pan bread and buns. (%)
WWF + 10% WWF + 20% WWF + 10% WWF + 20%
The wholegrain wheat flour and white wheat flour had a ash and FB FB CB CB
protein contents of 1.25, 0.64 and 13.40, 11.01%, while the coarse 0 5.04 ± 0.33a 6.82 ± 0.57a 4.65 ± 0.61a 5.27 ± 0.32a
wheat bran, fine wheat bran and psyllium husk had ash and protein 1 4.66 ± 0.21ab 6.75 ± 0.77ab 3.74 ± 0.12b 4.85 ± 0.66b
contents of 5.18, 4.55, 2.58, and 13.29, 16.29, 2.53% (dry basis), respec- 2 4.19 ± 0.54b 6.66 ± 0.55ab 3.59 ± 0.29b 5.11 ± 0.51a
tively. The type of proteins in bran fractions and flour are different, 3 3.53 ± 0.82c 5.67 ± 0.40bc 3.49 ± 0.32b 5.13 ± 0.32a
4 3.23 ± 0.57c 5.42 ± 0.22bc 3.38 ± 0.24b 5.26 ± 0.24a
white flour has mostly storage proteins consisting mainly of gluten, re- 5 2.59 ± 0.35d 5.53 ± 0.54bc 2.47 ± 0.37c 5.15 ± 0.11a
sponsible for the viscoelastic properties of dough. The bran fractions
WWF = White Wheat Flour; FB = Course wheat Bran; CB = Coarse wheat Bran.
coming from the outer epicarp layers of wheat grain and aleurone,
Mean values with the same lowercase letters do not differ significantly in a column (P =
and do not contain gluten proteins (Gan et al., 1992). 0.05).

3.2. Instrumental texture measurements

3.2.1. Pan bread texture
The crumb firmness was measured in terms of compression force (in
Newtons) required to obtain 30% compression of pan bread and buns
having one inch slice thickness which indicated the degree of softness
of the pan bread or bun crumb; lower the compression force, softer
the texture and vice versa. The effect of adding various levels of psyllium
husk on the objective texture of bread samples made from WWF and
WGF is presented in Fig. 1. The control WWF bread (4.12 ± 0.15
N) had a softer texture than the WGF bread (4.83 ± 0.45 N) with no
psyllium. The addition of psyllium husk significantly made the bread
texture softer with the increasing levels, the lowest compression force
value (2.48 ± 0.37 N) at 5% level, but harder than the WWF, with a cor-
responding compression force value of 3.41 ± 0.38 N at 5% level.
Addition of coarse wheat bran (at 10 and 20% levels) to WGF pro-
duced a significantly softer bread texture (4.65 ± 0.57 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
(Table 2). Addition of psyllium at a level of 1 to 5% to the WGF, contain-
ing fine wheat bran either at 10 or 20% levels, the bread texture became
softer, but still harder than the coarse wheat bran (10 or 20%) with all
levels of psyllium addition. At a level of 5% psyllium addition to WWF
with 10% fine wheat bran, the bread had a compression force of 2.59
± 0.35 N compared with 5.04 ± 0.33 N for the control bread, whereas
the WWF with 10% coarse wheat bran and 5% psyllium addition had a
compression force of 2.47 ± 0.37 N to that of 4.65 ± 0.57 N of WWF
bread made with 10% coarse bran and no psyllium. In general, the
addition of psyllium to WWF at various levels produced significantly
softer texture in most of the test bread samples.
Many workers have hypothesized that reduction in loaf volume with
bran addition, the bran-gluten proteins interactions are the main rea-
sons for the negative effects of fiber (Noort et al., 2010; Packkia-Doss
et al., 2019). But many other reasons, such as, dilution of gluten proteins
(Gan et al., 1992), rupture of gas cells in dough (Courtin and Delcour,
2002), or the interaction of bran particles disturbing the gluten network
or the enzymes present in bran fractions affecting the dough structure
(Noort et al., 2010) have also been suggested. The bran fractions may
also compete for water with gluten proteins or the ferulic acid of bran
fractions may bind with gluten proteins changing the agglomeration
properties of gluten proteins during dough mixing (Wang et al.,
2004). The effect of fine bran addition in comparison with coarse bran
fraction on the severe deterioration of bread texture may be explained
in the light of the above observations. Fine wheat bran particles have
higher surface area which may evidently lead to more interactions be-
tween bran particles and the gluten proteins during dough mixing.
3.2.2. Effect of DATEM on bread quality
When psyllium at 5% level was added either to the WWF or WGF, it
produced significantly softer bread texture (Fig. 2). Interestingly, the in-
corporation of DATEM emulsifier (0.5%) in the WWF or WGF bread sam-
ples containing 5% psyllium did not produce any significant change in
textural properties of bread samples. Evidently, the use of psyllium
can eliminate the need for adding DATEM to bread formula made with
WWF or WGF, thus saving cost of production for a commercial bakery.

6
a ▬WWF, ▬WGF
5 b b
b b
Compression Force, N

4 c
a
b
3 bc bc
c
2 d

0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Psyllium level (%)

Fig. 1. Effect of psyllium addition on the crumb firmness of pan bread. The mean compression force values for WWF or WGF with the same lowercase letters do not differ
significantly (P = 0.05).

77
M.M. Abdullah, A.D.H. Aldughpassi, J.S. Sidhu et al. Annals of Agricultural Sciences 66 (2021) 75–80

Table 3
Control 5% Psyllium 5% Psyllium +0.5% DATEM
6 Crumb firmness of hamburger buns (Newtons) as affected by addition of psyllium.
a Type of flour Psyllium level, % Crumb firmness
5 a
WWF 0 4.49 ± 0.19a
Compression Force, N

3 4.06 ± 0.17b
4 b b 5 4.03 ± 0.12b
WGF 0 9.44 ± 0.27a
b b 3 7.99 ± 0.09b
3
5 7.37 ± 0.16c

The mean values for WWF or WGF with the same lowercase letters do not differ signifi-
2
cantly in a column (P = 0.05).

0
WWF
Fig. 2. Effect of emulsifier diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides (DATEM)
and psyllium. The mean compression force values for WWF or WGF with the same
lowercase letters do not differ significantly (P = 0.05).
The effect of addition of DATEM to WWF and fine wheat bran at 10
and 20% levels along with 5% psyllium on the compression force is pre-
sented in Fig. 3. Psyllium addition produced a significantly softer bread
texture at both levels of bran addition (i.e., lower compression force
value) in WWF, but the DATEM addition did not bring about any further
significant improvement in the textural characteristics of the bread
WGF
samples containing 20% fine wheat bran. Similarly, when coarse wheat
bran fraction was added at 10 or 20% level to WWF, incorporation of
5% psyllium produced significantly softer bread than the WWF control,
but the DATEM did not produce any further significant improvement in
bread texture at 20% coarse wheat bran level (Fig. 4). The higher levels
(20%) of either coarse wheat bran or fine wheat bran fractions produced
tougher texture in bread samples when compared with bread made
with 10% level of wheat bran addition. As expected, here also the fine
wheat bran fraction produced a harder bread texture than the coarse
wheat bran fraction when added to WWF.

Control 5% Psyllium 5% Psyllium +0.5% DATEM 3.2.3. Hamburger bun texture

8 The results of objective texture measurements on hamburger buns
a in laboratory using various levels of psyllium are presented in Table 3.
7
ab Addition of psyllium (at 3 or 5% level) to WWF or WGF produced signif-
Compression Force, N

6 a b
icantly softer buns than the control sample. With 5% psyllium addition
b
5 to the WWF (4.03 ± 0.12 N) or the WGF, the WGF buns had a signifi-
c cantly higher crumb firmness i.e., higher compression force (7.37 ±
4
0.16 N). Similarly, in case of addition of psyllium resulted in a signifi-
3 cantly lower compression force indicating softer crumb texture for the
2 test buns compared with the control (Table 4). As in case of pan
bread, the addition of fine wheat bran fraction also gave harder buns
1 (higher compression force values) than the coarse wheat bran. The
0 fine bran fraction contains aleurone layers of wheat grain, it is richer
WWF+10%FineBran WWF+20%FineBran in certain vitamins, minerals, enzymes and has higher protein content
than the coarse bran coming from outer layers of wheat grain which
Fig. 3. Effect of fine wheat bran, emulsifier and psyllium addition on the crumb firmness of are richer in insoluble dietary fiber (Liu, 2007; Mense et al., 2020). An-
pan bread. Diacetyl tartaric ester of mono- and diglycerides (DATEM). The mean other approach has been tried to get the best nutritive values as well
compression force values for 10 or 20% fine wheat bran with the same lowercase letters as better textural quality (i.e., softer crumb) by making use of both
do not differ significantly (P = 0.05).
coarse and fine wheat bran fractions (having insoluble dietary fiber)

Control 5% Psyllium 5% Psyllium +0.5% DATEM

7
6 a
Compression Force, N

b b
5 a
b
4 c

3
2
1
0
WWF+10% CoarseBran WWF+20% CoarseBran

Fig. 4. Effect of coarse wheat bran, emulsifier and psyllium addition on the crumb firmness of pan bread, Diacetyl tartaric ester of mono- and diglycerides (DATEM). The mean compression
force values for 10 or 20% coarse wheat bran with the same lowercase letters do not differ significantly (P = 0.05).

78
M.M. Abdullah, A.D.H. Aldughpassi, J.S. Sidhu et al. Annals of Agricultural Sciences 66 (2021) 75–80

Table 4 Table 6
Effect of adding psyllium and wheat bran fractions on the crumb firmness of hamburger Consumer acceptability response (%) of pan bread and hamburger buns made in a com-
buns made from white wheat flour. mercial bakery.

Type of wheat bran Bran level, % Psyllium level, % Crumb firmness (Newtons) Sample description Acceptability response, n (%) Unacceptability response, n
(%)
Fine wheat bran 10 0 8.86 ± 0.22a
3 8.35 ± 0.22b Pan bread Hamburger buns Pan bread Hamburger buns
5 5.29 ± 0.42c
WWF (control) 90.9a 93.6a 9.1d 6.4c
20 0 9.76 ± 0.35a
WWF + 3% psyllium 63.6d 88.5b 36.4a 11.5b
3 8.62 ± 0.26b
WWF + 5% psyllium 63.6d 92.3a 36.4a 7.7c
5 7.28 ± 0.18c
WGF 86.3b 79.1c 13.7c 20.9a
Coarse wheat bran 10 0 7.96 ± 0.25a
WGF + 3% psyllium 80.0c 88.2b 20.0b 11.8b
3 6.71 ± 0.29b
WGF + 5% psyllium 81.1c 78.2c 18.9b 21.8a
5 5.03 ± 0.15c
20 0 8.24 ± 0.31a Responses are based on 112 consumers who returned the questionnaires out of a total of
3 7.45 ± 0.24b 120 consumers to whom the samples were provided. The mean values for WWF or WGF
5 6.34 ± 0.25c with the same lowercase letters do not differ significantly in a column (P = 0.05).
The mean values with the same lowercase letters do not differ significantly for different
levels of addition of psyllium in the column at each type of wheat bran at each level of
bran addition (P = 0.05).

temperature for five days were found to be significantly softer in texture

than the control sample having no psyllium added. It can be concluded
WGF WWF+5%FB+5%CB+3%PS from these results that the use of psyllium in hamburger bun formula-
tions led to significantly softer crumb textural properties during the per-
WWF+5%FB+5%CB+5%PS WWF+10%FB+10%CB+3%PS
mitted shelf life of bakery products in the State of Kuwait.
16 WWF+10%FB+10%CB+5%PS The psyllium fiber has the capacity to bind more water than its
a weight. When psyllium and bran fractions are used, both of the fiber
14
sources bind more water than the two major constituents, starch and
b gluten, leading to a weaker gluten development thus giving a lower spe-
Compression Force, N

12 b
cific loaf volume (Packkia-Doss et al., 2019). The fiber fractions may in-
10
c terfere with the gluten protein molecular bonding which may lead to
c
8 enhanced breakdown of dough during mixing. The hindrance of gluten
proteins network by particle size of the bran fraction may not be a direct
6 effect, but may be due also due to release of more ferulic acid which may
4 bind the arabinoxylans present in bran to the gluten proteins, thus alter-
ing the functionality of gluten proteins (Noort et al., 2010). This type of
2 binding of ferulic acid with the gluten proteins had also been suggested
earlier (Le Bleis et al., 2015). The phenolics present in bran fractions are
0
known to impart astringent flavor to the baked products which need to
Fig. 5. Effect of adding combinations of wheat bran and psyllium at different levels on the
be mellowed down (Heinio et al., 2016). Addition of bran fiber has also
crumb firmness of Hamburger buns. White wheat flour (WWF), Wholegrain wheat flour been reported to lower specific loaf volume, have direct effect on the
(WGF), Coarse Wheat Bran (CB), Fine Wheat Bran (FB), Psyllium husk (PS). The mean films separating gas bubbles, decreasing the porosity of bread crumb,
compression force values with the same lowercase letters do not differ significantly resulting in compact bread with the harder crumb texture (Le Bleis
(P = 0.05).
et al., 2015; Packkia-Doss et al., 2019). For the baking industry, evidently
the major barriers and concerns for the acceptability of high-fiber prod-
ucts are color, flavor and crumb texture.
in equal amounts and the psyllium as a source of soluble dietary fiber
(Fig. 5). When coarse or fine wheat bran fractions were added in
equal proportions to the WWF, inclusion of psyllium at 3 as well as 5% 3.3. Consumer acceptability
level produced softer buns (10.15 ± 0.82 N) than the WWF control
sample (13.18 ± 0.76 N). To investigate further the contribution of psyl- The pan bread and hamburger buns made in commercial bakeries
lium in maintaining their soft texture, the buns made from WWF and were tested for consumer acceptability in terms of color, appearance,
WGF were stored at room temperature for five days and the results texture, flavor and overall eating quality among the 120 KISR employees
are presented in Table 5. The hamburger buns made from WWF or (only 112 consumers returned the completed questionnaires) and re-
WGF with various levels of psyllium (3 and 5%) and stored at room sults are summarized in Table 6. As expected, WWF control pan bread

Table 5
Hamburger buns made from white wheat flour (WWF) and wholegrain wheat flour (WGF) during storage time of five days at room temperature.

Type of flour Psyllium level, % Crumb firmness (Newtons) during storage period (days)

1 2 3 4 5

WWF 0 4.68 ± 0.08aE 5.22 ± 0.72aD 6.69 ± 0.13aC 8.55 ± 0.27aB 11.09 ± 0.74aA
3 3.07 ± 0.10bE 4.45 ± 0.9bD 7.83 ± 0.60bB 6.73 ± 0.21bC 9.66 ± 0.65bA
5 2.81 ± 0.05cE 4.25 ± 0.54bD 5.72 ± 0.40cC 6.29 ± 0.47bB 7.66 ± 0.63cA
WGF 0 9.38 ± 0.15aE 14.24 ± 0.24aD 19.44 ± 0.26aC 20.22 ± 0.29aB 25.94 ± 0.93aA
3 7.69 ± 0.23bE 8.38 ± 0.36bD 15.11 ± 0.51bB 14.39 ± 0.30bC 17.94 ± 0.04bA
5 6.34 ± 0.11cE 7.73 ± 0.55cD 13.42 ± 0.45cC 14.51 ± 0.66bB 15.98 ± 0.45cA

Mean values with the same lowercase letters for WWF or WGF hamburger buns do not differ significantly in a column (P = 0.05). Mean values with the same uppercase letters for any
sample during the storage period of 5 days do not differ significantly in a row (P = 0.05).

79
M.M. Abdullah, A.D.H. Aldughpassi, J.S. Sidhu et al.
was found to be highly acceptable (90.9%) among the consumers, but
the pan bread containing psyllium at 3 and 5% levels was found to be ac-
ceptable to only 63% of the consumers. On the other hand, WGF pan
bread (without psyllium) was rated acceptable by 86% of the con-
sumers. Interestingly, the psyllium-enriched WWF pan bread was ac-
ceptable to 80 to 81% of the consumers. It shows clearly that use of
psyllium in WGF pan bread makes it more acceptable (80–81%) to the
consumers over that of psyllium-enriched WWF pan bread (only
63%). Control bread made from WWF had a softer and velvety texture,
whereas the presence of bran particles in WGF flour leads to harder
crumb texture of WGF bread made therefrom. To counteract this delete-
rious effect of bran particles, addition of psyllium to WGF has proven ex-
tremely beneficial to hold extra moisture which produced desirable
softness in WGF bread crumb. All types of hamburger buns made from
WWF or WGF with added psyllium were found to be highly acceptable
among the consumers. Only less than 20% of the consumers showed
“unacceptable response” to these hamburger buns. The consumer ac-
ceptability results have corroborated earlier findings about the nutri-
tional quality of these products and being well received by the general
consumers (Heinio et al., 2016).
We are making a few obvious suggestions to the baking industry to
produce pan bread and hamburger buns with superior crumb texture
and better acceptability, (i) by adding coarse wheat bran, fine wheat
bran, and psyllium husk (each of these at 5% replacement level) to the
white wheat flour, (ii) use coarse wheat bran at 20%, with psyllium
husk at 5% levels added to WWF, iii) use psyllium husk, added either
to WGF or WWF and eliminate the use of DATEM, a surfactant, to save
cost, but obtain the same kind of crumb softness by using psyllium
instead.
4. Conclusions
The main aim of this study was to explore the possibility of produc-
ing a fiber-enriched pan bread and buns using psyllium husk, coarse
wheat bran and fine wheat bran fractions to the white wheat flour, so
that these products have either similar or even softer crumb properties
than the bread or buns made from wholegrain wheat flour. Our results
of crumb firmness measurement of these products clearly brought out
the superior textural properties of pan bread and buns made by this
newer approach, than the common approach of using wholegrain
wheat flour, thus supporting our hypothesis. Crumb softness is one of
the important parameters in the baking industry that determines the
sensory quality and hence the consumer acceptability of bakery goods.
More research is needed to further enhance the nutritional value of
wheat bran fractions by using fermentation, extrusion, soaking of bran
fractions; or the use of enzymes, such as, glucose oxidase, endoxylanase
and lipoxygenase. Such approaches might help in producing high-fiber
pan bread and buns with superior nutritional quality also.
Funding
This research work was funded by the Kuwait Foundation for the Ad-
vancement of Sciences (Grant no: FB023C).
Declaration of conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known conflict of financial in-
terests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the outcome of this research work.
80
Annals of Agricultural Sciences 66 (2021) 75–80
Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to the colleagues and the man-
agements of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) for mak-
ing research facilities available. We also thank Mr. Austin D'Souza and
his colleagues at Sweet Dalia, Azzad Trading Group, Kuwait, for their
help and permitting us to use their commercial facilities and materials
to prepare bread and bun samples on a pilot scale in their commercial
bakery plant.
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