Fortifying wheat bread with whey proteins: impact on nutritional value and technological properties

Wheat bread is a widely consumed commodity around the world. It is poor and imbalanced in some essential amino acids. The aim of this study is to fortify wheat bread with whey proteins (WP), in order to inhence its nutri-tional value and to improve the balance of its essential amino acids. The composition of the different flours and breads enriched with WP was deter-mined by standard methods. The alveograph’s results show that the tenacity increases and the deformation energy decreases with increasing incorpora-tion of WP. The addition of WP leads to a dough that is resistant to defor-mation, extensible for incorporation rates of 2.5% and 3% and less extensible for 10% and 20%. The results on the composition of the different breads show that the addition of WP contributes to the improvement of the amino acid profiles of the breads, especially for P10 and P20. It corrects, especially, the deficit and imbalance of the bread in essential amino acids. The assess-ments of the organoleptic characteristics show that the majority of the tast-ers find the P2.5 and P3 breads are very close to the commercial breads and sometimes better. These loaves have a nice external appearance, regular shape, crispy golden crust, light texture, good taste and smell. The develop-ment of the breads during vacuum storage is very satisfactory. They keep their crispness and a good crumbliness after 7 days.