Nutritional, Functional, Microbiological and Sensory Quality of Wheat Crackers Fortified with Sprouted Pearl Millet and Soybean Flour

Abstract

Wheat-based crackers generally have low nutritional quality due to limited protein‚ dietary fibre‚ and mineral contents from refined-grade wheat flour․ There has been wide-ranging research on cereal-based composite flours‚ but few studies have focused on the effect of replacing refined wheat flour with sprouted pearl millet- and soybean-milled flour on the quality of wheat-based crackers․ The effect of sprouted pearl millet and soybean flour supplementation on the nutritional and sensory quality of wheat crackers was studied using five formulations by substituting the wheat flour with different levels of sprouted flour of pearl millet and soybean flour․ The formulations were designated as F1‚ F2‚ F3‚ F4 and F5․ Proximate composition‚ functional properties‚ mineral composition‚ physical properties‚ microbial quality‚ and organoleptic evaluation (hedonic scale of five points) by 100 untrained panellists of the crackers were determined and the data analysed for one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's HSD test with p < 0․05․ Increasing the substitution improved protein (10․42-15․36%)‚ fibre (1․46-3․82%)‚ ash (1․42-2․91%)‚ calcium (38․42-71․36 mg/100 g) and iron (2․84-5․76 mg/100 g)․ The effect of formulation on quality characteristics was important (p < 0․001)․ Sensory analysis showed that increased levels of substitution in fortified formulations negatively affected overall acceptability‚ with the fortified formulation of F3 (70% wheat flour‚ 20% sprouted pearl millet flour and 10% soybean flour) scoring the highest acceptability at 4․16 out of 5․ Moderate supplementation of sprouted pearl millet and soybean flour improved nutritional quality with acceptable sensory acceptability․