Assessment of Cassava Composite Flour Inclusion in Bread Production in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

The study elicits information on the level of awareness, usage, and factors influencing cassava flour inclusion in bread production in Southwestern Nigeria. The study was carried out in Oyo, Lagos, and Osun states. Two towns were selected purposively from the selected states two sets of questionnaire were administered in the study area; the first set was administered on 25 bread bakers from each of the selected towns in the states, making 150 bread bakers. The second set was administered on 25 bread consumers from each of the selected towns in the states, making 150 bread consumers. Hence, a total of 300 respondents were considered in the study area. The study was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics by employing SPSS 20. The study revealed that about 46.7% of the bread consumers often ate bread in a day and most (66.7%) of them were aware of the cassava composite flour inclusion in bread production, but the majority (69.3%) of them could not identify the cassava bread. In addition, only 25.3% of the bread consumers had eaten the cassava bread before despite the fact that they often ate bread daily. Likewise, most (78.1%) of the bread bakers were aware of composite flour inclusion in bread production and they produced bread once in a day using Golden Penny (74.7%) flour. Due to the low level of awareness of majority of master bakers about composite flour inclusion in bread production from the selected channels, few (0.7%) bakers complied with the usage of composite flour inclusion in bread production. Most (76%) of the bread bakers used a brick oven. The study revealed that the high efficiency of the cost of modification (2.83), cost of raw materials (2.80) and cost of operation (2.46) were the factors inhibiting the bakers from using cassava flour in their bread production. The study further revealed the magnitude and direction of association among the availability of cassava flour and cassava bread production (r=0.187, p<5%), product quality and cassava bread production (r=0.388 p<10%). The study concluded that the awareness level of bread consumers in identifying cassava bread was low, and the level of compliance of bread bakers in cassava flour composite in bread production was also low due to the high cost attributed to it. The study recommends that government should create platforms that will increase the level of awareness and identification of cassava bread for bread consumers and to also subside the cost attributed to the factors inhibiting the use of cassava composite in bread production.