The research evaluated wheat and cowpea bran flour (FCBF) bread. Cowpea bran was fermented with 5% Saccharomyces cerevisiae for 24 h dried and milled to powder. The fermented cowpea bran was incorporated into wheat flour at varying ratios. Functional attributes (flour blends) wh,ile chemical composition, physical and sensory studies were investigated on the products. Nutritional analysis revealed significant increases (p<0.05) in protein, lipids, crude fiber, and ash composition across the flour blend formulations from 11.34 to 13.06, 3.31 to 3.34, 2.56 to 2.71 and 8.78 to 8.81%, respectively, while carbohydrate content decreased from 67.87 to 65.05% with an increase in added content of fermented cowpea bran. The effects were generally significant, p≤0.05. Carotenoids, flavonoids and phenols content increased from 6.17 to 8.20, 12.16 to 18.73 and 39.38 to 49.64 mg/100g, respectively. DPPH, FRAP and ABTS content increased from 9.47 to 12.77, 4.31 to 8.28 and 12.42 to 21.39, respectively as FCBF levels increased. Dietary fibervalues of composite flours are 6.56 to 9.68 (SDF), 21.38 to 23.42 (IDF) and 27.95 to 33.10g/100g (TDF), respectively, withanincrease in levels of FCBF. The functional properties analysis including oil absorption capacity (OAC), water absorption capacity (WAC),swelling capacity, with foaming capacity values increased from 1.25 to 1.75 g/ml, 1.75 to 2.00 g/ml, 1.20 to 1.25 g/ml and 0.11 to 0.15 g/ml, respectively while bulk density (BD) reduced from 0.75 to 0.62g/ml with increasing FCBF inclusion level. Loaf weight reduced while volume and volume-to-weight ratio also decreased significantly (p<0.05) index as FCBF increased.The bread sample containing 5% FCBF was not significantly different from the 100% wheat bread in terms of sensory attributes. The study revealed that the supplementation of FCBF enhanced the functional characteristics and nutrient composition of the composite bread and the sample containing 5% FCBF was the most preferred.
