Appearance, Tastiness, and Healthiness Perception of University Students TowardsSustainable Cereal Snack Bar Enriched With Pumpkin

Pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima) is an endogenous product of low commercial value. Cereal bars are used as a snack, mainly in intermediate meals. The development of new food products with low commercial value contributes to endogenous products’ valorisation and sustainability. This study aimed to develop a cereal bar using pumpkin and pumpkin seed flour and analyse appearance, tastiness, and healthiness perception related to it by university students from different areas. The nutrition students’ group was constituted of 33 students and the hospitality group was constituted of 26 students, both rated the bar in terms of appearance, tastiness and healthiness perception using a Likert scale from 1 (lower value) to 5 (higher value). Based on the global appearance was notorious the higher value rate of the nutrition students (32.2%) compared to the hospitality students (3.4%). The developed cereal-pumpkin bar seems to be an interesting alternative to other snack bars available on the market.