Quality Evaluation of Cookies Prepared from Reduced Gluten Composite Flour of Type 2 Diabetic Patients

The present study evaluated the physicochemical and sensory quality of cookies prepared by replacing wheat flour with maize (Zea mays L.) flour at six levels: WC0 (100:0), WC1 (80:20), WC2 (60:40), WC3 (40:60), WC4 (20:80) and WC5 (0:100; wheat: maize flour, w/w). Cookies were assessed initially and after 30, 60, 90 and 120 days of storage. Wet and dry gluten, proximate composition, physical characteristics (width and thickness) and sensory attributes were evaluated. Dry gluten decreased progressively from 7.05% in WC0 to 0.00% in WC5. Flour treatment significantly affected width, thickness, ash, protein, fibre, fat, carbohydrate and sensory attributes (p<0.05), whereas storage significantly affected moisture content, which increased from an overall mean of 3.63% initially to 3.78% after 120 days. The increase in moisture was likely related to moisture uptake during storage in polypropylene packaging; however, water activity was not measured and therefore cannot be inferred from moisture content alone. Among the reduced-gluten formulations, WC1 (80:20 wheat: maize flour) had the highest overall sensory acceptability (7.92) and provided a favourable balance between gluten reduction and sensory quality. WC5 had the highest protein (10.05%), ash (2.05%), fibre (6.09%), fat (19.96%) and carbohydrate (74.97%) values among the flour treatments, but its sensory scores were lower than those of wheat-containing formulations. The findings demonstrate that partial maize-flour substitution can reduce measured gluten while retaining acceptable cookie quality, although analytical gluten quantification and water-activity measurements should be included in future studies to strengthen product-safety and shelf-life conclusions.