Germinated lupin (Lupinus albus) flour improves Arabic flat bread properties

Arabic flat bread (AFB) is one type of bread that is consumed in most of the Middle East countries. It is usually prepared from wheat (Triticum aestivum) flour. However, it is low in its nutritive value. Whereas lupin (Lupinus albus) is known as a potential source in increasing food nutritional value, which could be increased by germination. Thus, this study was conducted to substitute 5, 10, 15, or 20% of wheat flour (WF) in AFB making with different levels of germinated lupin flour (GLF), and to determine the effect of these substitutions on different properties of the resulted germinated lupin bread (GLB), considering lupin flour free bread as control bread (CB). GLB and CB were analysed chemically, physically and organoleptically. Chemical analysis showed that the rate of protein, lipid, ash and fibre contents were significantly increased in GLF compared to WF. Conversely, chemical components were significantly increased in their corresponding GLB samples. However, the organoleptic evaluation indicated that there were no significant differences between CB and the different level samples of GLB in all bread characteristics except in loaf face colour. While the specific volume of all treated AFB decreased as the level of GLF incorporation increased. All GLB samples exhibited a significant increase in bread yellowness and redness; whereas lightness was decreased particularly at a high amount of incorporation. Softness of bread crumb was adversely affected with storage time in AFB; that means that CB was significantly softer than GLB. It is concluded that nutritive values of AFB could be improved by using GLF, since the chemical components were increased in bread without affecting their organoleptic properties. Also, this study could be encouraging to develop new healthy food products that are useful for feeding programmes and dieting.