Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences
Open Access

Abstract

Effect of Dehydration on the Quality Characteristics of Extruded Pasta Using Millet Milk Powder

Narayanasamy Sangeetha and Pushpa Devi M

Millet is an indispensable food for millions of people inhabiting the semi-arid tropics. It is used primarily for human food and remains a major source of calories and a vital component of food security in the semi-arid areas in the developing world. The present study focused on the use of underexploited millets for production of ready-to-eat products using extrusion cooking. The millet were selected for study namely Finger millet. The techniques used for processing millets are soaking, sprouting, extraction of milk from millets, dehydration and milling were carried out for development of millet milk powder. Physical properties namely bulk density, swelling power, water holding capacity, foam capacity and foam stability and nutritional properties namely, protein, ash, fat and carbohydrate, calorific value of the millet milk powder were analyzed. Extrusion cooking was carried out using a single screw extruder at 400 rpm. The organoleptic qualities of extruded samples were analyzed by panelists on a 9 point hedonic scale. The findings of the study revealed that significance difference (P<0.05) was observed in all the parameters between the control and millet milk powder. Organoleptic evaluation stated that the millet milk pasta had higher scores and highly acceptable among the panelist.