The study was carried out with the aim of developing acceptable fibre-enriched bread with the target of meeting at least 20% of Recommended Dietary Intake (RDI) of dietary fibre for healthy nutrition. Appropriate process technology and formulation was developed using straight dough bulk fermentation process. The effect of coconut fibre (CCF) and corn bran (CBN) as sources of dietary fibre at different level of inclusion (0%, 5%, and 10%) on the physical characteristics, chemical composition and organoleptic qualities of developed bread samples were investigated. Dough rheological characteristics measurements for wheat cassava flour blends with the inclusion of coconut fibre were also studied using the Mixolab, the standard “Chopin+”protocol. The nutritional qualities of the test bread samples with respect to chemical composition and physical characteristics of the bread samples were evaluated. The weights of bread samples were determined using a digital balance and the loaf volumes were determined by the millet displacement method as described by AACC (2000). The specific volume of each loaf was then calculated as loaf volume/ loaf weight. The chemical parameters of the raw materials and bread samples were determined using analytical procedures described by AOAC 2010 and the results were expressed as means of triplicate determinations. Sensory evaluation was conducted using a 9-point Hedonic scale (Iwe, 2010) where 1 = extremely unacceptable and 9 = extremely acceptable. Attributes evaluated include; bread appearance, crust color, crumb color, texture, taste, chew ability, flavor and overall acceptability and the resulting data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), while the means were separated using Duncan multiple range test (Duncan, 1955), significance was accepted at 5% level of probability (p<0.05). The fibre component of the developed bread samples was characterized to ascertain the type of fibre in the bread.

Results showed a significant reduction (p<0.05) in the loaf volume and specific loaf volume of the fibre enriched bread with increased level of fibre inclusion. It ranged from 1250 -1403.3 cm3 and 4.98 -5.77cm3/g respectively with highest values obtained from 5% CCF inclusion and the lowest value from 10% CBN inclusion.  The dietary fibre content of the bread loaves increased significantly (p>0.05) as the level of CCF fibre increased. It ranged from 3.79 to 5.28% with the highest value in 10% CCF level and lowest in 10% CBN fibre bread. However, the CBN fibre bread had lower dietary fibre contents of 3.79 and 3.98% compared to the control sample 0% (4.56%).  The study revealed that coconut enriched bread with DF of 5.28% was able to deliver 21.12% of the Recommended Daily Intake for dietary fibre.  The mean sensory scores obtained showed no significant (p>0.05) difference between 5% and 10% coconut fibre enriched bread and 10:90 cassava- wheat bread (CONTROL), however bread with 5% inclusion had the highest taste, chewability and overall acceptability scores in all the attributes evaluated. It was revealed that the major fibre component in 10% coconut bread (CTP) is Neutral detergent fibre (NDF) with 12.40% and the control (HBC-non fibre bread) having 9.62% and Hemicellulose was 9.30 and 7.81% respectively. This indicated that the fibre component in this developed fibre enriched bread consists predominantly of insoluble dietary fibre. Thus, this study provided an appropriate process technology and formulation for coconut fibre- enriched bread which is able to meet 21% of the Recommended Dietary Intake of dietary fibre. The dietary fibre component of the fibre- enriched bread was characterized to consist majorly of Neutral Detergent fibre and hemicelluloses.