Study on the physico-chemical properties, sensory attributes and shelf life of pineapple powder incorporated biscuits

Abstract

The bakery industry is growing very fast and the products are becoming increasingly popular among consumers worldwide. Among ready-to-eat snacks, biscuits possess several attractive features including wider consumption base, relatively long shelf-life and preferred eating quality. Pineapples constitute important natural and valuable material in producing functional foods due to the presence of several anti-oxidants and bioactive compounds. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the nutritional composition and sensory quality of wheat flour biscuits incorporated with pineapple powder at the rates of 3, 5, 10, and 15% (w/w basis). The protein, fat, total sugar, moisture and mineral contents were significantly (p<0.05) changed during storage. Nutritional analysis indicated that biscuits incorporated with 5% pineapple powder had a slow rate of increase in moisture content (4.19 to 5.0%) and decreasing trend in protein (22.15 to 22.06%), fat (18.83 to 18.79%), total sugar (58.52 to 58.34%) and mineral contents (2.212 to 1.591%) compared to other treatments during storage. Among the treatments, the biscuits prepared with 5% pineapple powder had the highest nutritional and sensory quality, having the overall acceptability score of 7.7 in a 9-point hedonic scale. The shelf life evaluation showed that these biscuits could be stored for 6 weeks at the ambient conditions of average temperature at 301ºC and RH at 75-80% with acceptable quality.