Effect of fiber incorporation on rheological and chapati making quality of wheat flour.

Traditional Indian unleavened bread (chapati) was prepared by incorporating wheat bran (insoluble fiber) and oat bran (soluble fiber) at different levels into whole wheat flour. Central composite rotatable design with 2 independent variables (wheat bran and oat bran) at 5 levels (wheat bran 3-9, oat bran 6-12%) was used to design the experiments. The flour samples containing different concentration of bran were analysed for pasting and mixing characteristics. Wheat bran had a negative (p ≤ 0.05) effect on peak viscosity, break down and final viscosity, whereas oat bran had a positive (p ≤ 0.05) effect on set back and final viscosity. Among mixing characteristics, the peak value was negatively affected (p ≤ 0.05) with increase in the level of both variables. Both variables had positive (p ≤ 0.05) effect on hardness of chapati while the cohesiveness, chewiness and overall acceptability scores were negatively affected. Based on compromise optimization, it is recommended to incorporate 5.5 g wheat bran and 9.7 g oat bran per 100 g flour for making optimally acceptable fiber rich chapati.