Date fiber has potential as a functional ingredient.

In the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), where dates are a major component of individual diets, the fruit's fiber is playing an important role in baked goods. By reducing the amount of flour and replacing it with date fiber at up to 30% levels, breads, cookies and muffins have become healthy alternatives to their flour-based counterparts. However, with the addition of more date fiber, the volume of a loaf of bread can shrink too much.

The U.A.E. is responsible for 13% of world date production. In addition to direct consumption, dates are processed in date paste and date syrup. Date fiber is a byproduct of date syrup production. Scientists at the United Arab Emirates University investigated the characteristics of date fiber. They determined the fiber's chemical composition and functional properties. An animal feed study showed that even just 5% date fiber can lead to higher ratios of HDL (good) to LDL (bad) cholesterol. So, date fiber has a hypolipidemic, or lipid-lowering, effect.

Date fiber contains 52% total dietary fiber and can be utilized as functional ingredient in food products. With this in mind, U.A.E. researchers prepared fiber-enriched cookies, muffins and bread by replacing regular flour with 10% to 50% date fiber.

Muffins containing 30% date flour had similar volume, specific volume aroma, sweetness, texture and overall acceptance ratings to the control muffins. The date fiber affected the color and texture properties of the dough and cookies. Cookies containing date fiber were darker with a high redness value. They had a harder texture.

Date fiber at more than 25% levels decreased the overall acceptance of the cookies. The fiber affected the dough rheology and bread characteristics. Increasing date fiber levels increased the loaf weight, decreased the loaf volume and produced bread with a darker crumb. Yet, bread containing 15% date fiber had a better taste and flavor and was preferred over commercial high-fiber breads.

Although date fiber affected the color of baked products, the scientists were able to produce acceptable date fiber-enriched muffins, cookies and bread using 30%, 25% and 15% date fiber levels, respectively, without affecting the quality characteristics of the products.

Further information. Dr. Isameldin Bashir Hashim, Department of Food Sciences, College of Food and Agriculture, United Arab Emirates University, P.O. Box 17551, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates; phone: [phone]; fax: [phone]; email: [e-mail].