Standardization and evaluation of RTE extruded corn-pearlmillet snacks incorporated with kidney bean or green gram flour: A comparative study

The presentstudy aimed to develop ready-to-eat extruded snacks by incorporating kidney bean flour (0-25%) or green gram flour (0-25%) in a cornpearlmillet (70:30) flour blend. All flours were tested for their compositional and nutritional parameters (crude fibre, carotenoid, phyticacid, polyphenols, iron, zinc, and total dietary fibre). Evaluation of pasting characteristics, water absorption, and dough extensibility of flours and physical (bulk density, expansion ratio, sectional expansion index, and hardness) and sensory properties of extruded snacks weredone. The addition of pulses reduced pasting values, resistance to extension, and extensibility of flour while increasing water absorptions significantly (p<0.05). Physical properties and sensory characteristics of extrudates were also significantly (p<0.05) reduced by pulses addition. However, considering nutritional aspects, kidney bean flour up to 15% or green gram flour up to 10% is recommended to be incorporated for obtaining extrudates of desirable quality. Both pulses hadsimilar effects on product quality, but the use of green gram flour is preferred over kidney bean due to its minimum anti-nutritional factors available in the resulting product.