Comparative Instrumental Cutting-Force Characteristics of Multi-Millet and Control Cookies

The instrumental cutting-force characteristics of cookies prepared with a blend of sorghum, pearl millet, proso millet and finger millet flours were compared descriptively with those of control cookies. The multi-millet cookies were prepared by milling and blending the selected flours, mixing them with sugar, vegetable bakery fat, essence and baking soda, and baking at 150 °C for 15 min. Five individual force measurements were reported for each cookie group using a TA-HD texture analyser. The instrument force–time traces used a gram-based force scale; accordingly, the displayed numerical force readings are expressed as gram-force (gf), rather than newtons. The mean peak cutting force was 810.807 gf (sample standard deviation [SD], 331.878 gf) for the multi-millet cookies and 1363.737 gf (SD, 329.724 gf) for the controls. The multi-millet mean was 40.55% lower, while the coefficients of variation were 40.932% and 24.178%, respectively. These observations indicate lower recorded cutting-force resistance in the multi-millet group under the reported test conditions. Because complete control formulations, specimen dimensions, instrument settings and independent baking-batch replication were not documented, the results are descriptive and do not establish a causal effect of millet incorporation or statistical significance. Nutritional composition, sensory acceptability and displacement at fracture were not evaluated.