​Development and Nutritional Evaluation of Foxtail Millet (Setaria italica) based Laddu

Abstract

Backround: Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is known for its health benefits as it is nutritionally superior to conventional food grains. Laddu are ball-shaped sweets which are popular in India and are often served at festive or religious occasions. Hence, an attempt was made to develop foxtail millet based value added laddu. Methods: Besan laddu was taken as control. Optimized foxtail millet laddu were nutritionally evaluated for proximate composition, sugars and minerals. Paired ‘t’ test was used to compare the physical parameters and nutrient composition of besan and foxtail millet laddu. Result: The developed foxtail millet laddu had the 11.61, 17.52, 2.64, 1.11 and 66.85% per 100g of protein, fat, crude fibre, ash and carbohydrate respectively. There was no significant difference in sugar composition between the control and the optimised laddu. However, it was observed that the calcium, iron, zinc, copper and manganese of foxtail millet laddu were high as compared to control laddu.