Formulation and nutritional evaluation of baked products supplemented with partially defatted peanut flour

Due to the increased consumption of fast foods in India, especially among the youngsters, obesity and related health ailments have become a serious concern. Fast foods provide empty calories which calls for an urgent need to improvise their nutritional value rendering them “nutrient dense”. The purpose of this research was development and nutritional evaluation of baked products incorporated with partially defatted peanut flour.

Three baked products, namely, pizza base, buns and bread were developed using standardized recipes with different levels of incorporation of defatted peanut meal flour. These products were organoleptically evaluated by a trained panel of ten judges using nine-point hedonic scale. The selected samples of each product were nutritionally evaluated for proximate composition and mineral content along with their respective control samples.

Results from sensory evaluation revealed that pizza base, buns and bread were most acceptable at 10, 10 and 15 per cent level of incorporation of partially defatted peanut flour, respectively. The developed products were found to have high protein, crude fiber, calcium and iron, i.e. 11.5-12.4 per cent, 1.4-1.8 per cent, 19.2-20.4 mg/100 g, 1.8-2.3 mg/100 g content, respectively. p-values for the same were also calculated.

Keeping in view the nutritional benefits of peanut flour and trending consumption of bakery products among children and other age groups, these products can be commercialized to improve the nutritional value of empty calorie baked products as these products are consumed very frequently. Defatted peanut meal although being nutrient rich has generally been used as animal feed or is discarded as waste. The role of this meal in the human diet has not been explored to the best.