Nwanekezi EC, Ekwe CC and Agbugba RU
The proximate, physical and sensory analysis of bread samples produced by substituting the level of sucrose with date palm fruit pulp (50:0 g, 37.5:12.5 g, 25:25 g, 12.5:37.5 g and 0.50 g) was investigated. The proximate analysis revealed that the protein, moisture, ash, crude fiber and fat contents increased with increase in the level of the date palm fruit pulp. There were increases in the levels of nutrients which ranged from 15.19-19.43% (protein), 1.65-4.43% (crude fiber), 2.44-4.11% (ash) and 28.19-28.92% (moisture). However, there was decrease in the level of carbohydrate content from 45.39 to 35.13% as the level of date palm pulp increased. The specific volume also decreased as the level of the date palm fruit increased ranging from3.12 cm3/g to 2.93 cm3/g; the addition of date palm fruit pulp had no effect on the loaf volumes which ranged from 1920.1 to 1925.0 cm3. The sensory analysis, using a 25-man panel of judges revealed that all the loaf samples were acceptable organoleptically. However, the substitution of sucrose with date palm fruit pulp powder increased the nutritional value of the bread samples.