Objectives
The objective of this study was to develop functional cookies from blend of Moringa stenopetalla leaf powder and wheat flour for pregnant women and lactating mothers and evaluating the nutritional qualities and sensory acceptability of the cookies.
Methods
Moringa stenopetalla leaves powder (MLP) and wheat flour were blended in the ratio of 0:100, 5:95, 10:90, 15:85 and 20:80 by using mixture simplex lattice design. Proximate analysis and sensory qualities of developed cookies were evaluated using standard procedures.
Results
Proximate composition and sensory attributesof baked cookies were analysed. The crude fibre, ash, crude protein contents were significantly increased (P<0.05) while crude fat, moisture, carbohydrate and gross energy of the cookies were decreased (P<0.05) as the ratio of MLP increased in the blend ratio. The sensory acceptability of cookies decreased significantly (p<0.05)with increasing in MLP ratio. Hence, the overall acceptability results confirmed that the 5% MLP blended (T2) cookies was more accepted than the others.
Conclusions
The MLP blended cookies at different ratios (5, 10 15, 20%) showed increment in ash content, crude fibre and crude protein whereas moisture contents, crude fat, total carbohydrates and gross energy of cookies decreased as the level MLP in the blending ratio increase. The cookie formulated from 20% MLP (T5 ) was the richest of all nutritionally. The sensory evaluation results also showed that the most preferred cookie by consumers was T2 (5% MLP).Whatever the nutritional quality of cookies increased at high level of MLP ratio, the sensory acceptability of formulated cookies became declined. In general, the cookies formulated from MLP are nutritious and it may contributes for malnourished pregnant women and lactating mothers to reduce minimize malnutrition problems, however, the most preferred cookie was T2 based on sensory acceptability results.
