ABSTRACT

Flours were obtained from three varieties of yam by peeling, slicing, washing.

blanching, drying, milling and sieving. The flours obtained were blended with wheat

flour at 25, 50 and 75% levels of substitution for bread production. The flours

obtained were evaluated for functional properties and proximate composition.

Physical and sensoiy properties of loaves were also determined. The loose bulk

density of flour samples varied from 0.39g/ml to 0.47g1m1 while the packed bulk

density ranged between 0.42g!ml and 0.67g1m1. The flour samples had oil absorption

capacity of 0.88m1/g to 2.1 mug and water absorption capacity of l.5m1!g to 3.9m1/g.

The emulsion activity of the flour samples ranged from 43.75% to 49.37%. The flour

blends had proximate composition ranging from 10.76% to 12.14% moisture, 4.53%

to 9.38% protein, 1.65% to 2.24% ash, 0.36% to 2.1% fat, 2.0 to 4.79% crude fiber

and 72.7 to 77.27% carbohydrate while the values of the proximate composition of

the bread samples were 26.82% to 38.90% moisture, 4.23 to 5.10% fat, 4.20% to

9.25% protein, 1.90% to 2.45% ash, 0.12% to 0.64% crude fibre and 46.43% to

56.71% carbohydrate. The volume, weight and specific volume of loaves varied from

200m1 to 400m1, 142.6g to 170.2g and 1.80mL'g to 2.81m1/g respectively. Sensory

evaluation of the bread samples showed that substitution level of 25% yam flour

produced bread that was acceptable to the consumers where as up to 50 percent and

above were not acceptable.