Elaboration of Bread Partially Substituting with Dragon Fruit and Chía Seeds Flour

The objective of this research was the elaboration of bread enriched with dragon fruit and chia seeds flours, as partial substitutes for wheat flour and thus take advantage of other types of vegetable flours and provide foreign exchange savings due to possible lower wheat imports. Ecuador is not a wheat-producing country and imports big amount of this cereal every year. Dragon fruit is cultivated on a large scale in Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Israel, and Taiwan. The fruit has very attractive color and mellow mouth-melting pulp with a black color edible seeds embedded in the pulp along with tremendous nutritive property which attract the growers from different parts of the World. The research work was carried out in the Food Processing Plant, Bakery area of the Agrarian University of Ecuador, the physical, chemical and microbiological analyzes in an accredited laboratory, both located in the city of Guayaquil, Province of Guayas. Three formulations of bread with different substitution percentages (15%, 25%, 30%) were used. In terms of the sensory qualities assessed—taste, smell, colour, and texture—the bread with a 25% substitution was more palatable.

The protein content, humidity and microbiological analyzes were carried out on the product with the highest sensory acceptability. The bread with partial substitution of 30% had a protein content 9.32% and 32.14% humidity. Yeast and coliform microbiological analyses revealed a minimum value in relation to the maximum permitted.