Bread consumption pattern and the potential of orange-fleshed sweetpotato-composite bread in Ghana

Abstract

Bread is consumed by most Ghanaians. Wheat flour and refined sugar are the main raw materials in bread making. These key raw  materials are imported, thereby causing the local currency to consistently lose value. Therefore, developing bread recipes with locally available raw materials such as root and tuber crops is of the essence. The study assessed bread consumption patterns in Ghana; potential consumer preference for orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) puree-wheat flour composite bread; consumers’ willingness to buy and bakers’ willingness to bake this composite bread. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in four regions of Ghana: Accra, Ashanti, Northern, and Upper East regions; data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Consumers (n = 651) and bakers (n = 77) were randomly selected to participate in the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive scores procedure in IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20. Almost all the consumer-respondents (96.50%; n = 628) indicated that they eat bread. Based on the frequency of bread consumption, 54% of respondents consumed bread daily, 18% once a week and 28% twice or more per week. The preferred bread types across the regions were: tea, butter, and “sugar” bread. Respondents across the regions consumed at least one type of bread with tea bread being the most consumed in the Upper East (n = 153; 39.30%) and Northern (n = 58; 38%) regions.  However, butter bread was the most consumed in the Greater Accra (n =17; 36%) while consumerrespondents in the Ashanti region (n  = 24; 38.70%) indicated they consume more than one type. The least consumed bread type across all the regions was composite and  bran (brown) bread types. The consumers’ willingness to buy the OFSP-based bread further increased by 8.3% when they were  informed about the nutritional benefits of OFSPbased bread. Thus, the OFSP-based wheat flour composite bread could have a higher
potential of being adopted into the Ghanaian community irrespective of regional demarcation to increase dietary intake of vitamin A. This would contribute to efforts to find a sustainable way of increasing dietary intake of vitamin A, particularly children in Ghana.

Key words: Baker, composite-bread, consumer, Ghana, orange-fleshed sweetpotato, puree, survey, vitamin A