Barnyard Millet (Echinochloa Frumentacea Link) Cookies: Development, Value Addition, Consumer Acceptability, Nutritional and Shelf Life Evaluation.

Abstract

Millets have been neglected despite their nutritive value and therapeutic use. Barnyard millet is one of the underutilized nutritious minor millet. In developing countries like India with increasing urbanization, the demand for processed food is increasing popularly. Among them, bakery products particularly cookies command wide popularity in both urban and rural mass. Hence, an attempt was made to develop value added barnyard millet cookies with acceptable sensory attributes. Three types of cookies namely plain, pulse and vegetable cookies were developed. Plain cookies were developed by incorporating sago flour to barnyard millet flour at different levels. Further trials were conducted for value addition of plain cookies with pulses (soybean flour and green gram dhal flour) and dehydrated carrot gratings to barnyard millet flour at different levels to develop pulse and vegetable cookies respectively. Consumer acceptability studies were conducted for identifying the best accepted cookies. The nutritional and storage quality evaluation of the best accepted cookies were estimated by standard procedures. The findings indicated that plain cookies prepared with 100 per cent barnyard millet flour; pulse cookies with 10 per cent incorporation of soy bean flour and green gram dhal flour and vegetable cookies with 10 per cent incorporation of dehydrated carrot gratings were best accepted. Among various types of cookies, pulse cookies were most accepted by consumers (85 %). There was significant increase in the macro and micronutrient composition of cookies after incorporation of pulses and carrot gratings. The developed cookies had a shelf life of 45-60 days.