Development of Functional Bread: Exploring the Nutritional, Bioactive and Microbial Potential of Carob Pulp Flour

For the development of a high-quality functional bread it is of crucial importance to find a compromise between improving the functional value of the product and impairing its quality. Therefore, the primary aim of this work was to define the effects of carob pulp flour (CF; 10-20% on flour basis) on rheological behavior of dough and quality parameters of bread. Introduction of CF caused a major increase in dough resistance while significantly decreasing dough extensibility, resulting in lower volume with denser crumb structure of obtained bread samples. The negative effects of CF on dough and bread characteristics were partialy compensated by the addition of dry sourdough (DS) as an improver in the amount of 5-10% (flour basis). It was determined that by combining 15% CF and 10% DS bread of very good sensory quality can be produced. The content of total dietary fiber (6.48 g), Mn (0.76 mg) and Cu (0.21 mg) per 100 g of mentioned bread was sufficient for the nutritional claims: "high in fiber", "high in manganese" and "source of copper". Obtained bread had 10 times higher content of total phenols and multiple times higher antioxidant activity compared to the control. Moreover, microbiological tests confirmed the durability of bread with 15% CF and 10% DS up to seven days. Therefore, carob pulp flour can be successfully applied in the production of bread, which characteristics are adapted to modern trends in nutrition.