​Development and Nutritional Evaluation of Foxtail Millet (Setaria italica) based Laddu

With improvement in food technology, convenience food and ready to eat foods are emerging in market. Convenience foods have also been described as foods that have been created to “make them more appealing to the consumer.”  And they also save time. They are commercially prepared (often through processing) to optimize ease of consumption. Such food is usually ready to eat without further preparation. It may also be easily portable, have a long shelf life, or offer a combination of such convenient traits. Types of convenience foods can vary by country and geographic region. Convenience foods include ready-to-eat dry products, shelf-stable foods, prepared mixes and snack foods. Hence are gaining more popularity.
       
Traditional foods are developed through ages invented, modified, utilized and evolved to overcome the monotony in the diet. India has rich treasure of traditional foods specifically prepared for festivals, rituals and physiological conditions (Inamdar et al., 2005). The traditional food of India has been widely appreciated for its fabulous use of locally grown crops. Value addition of some traditional food products with millets showed to be a highly strategic intervention in the popularization of nutritionally rich local crops i.e. millets. which are currently largely neglected and underutilized (Yenagi et al., 2010). Foxtail millet is a good source of protein (12.3 g/100 g) and dietary fibre (14 g/100 g). The carbohydrate content is low (60.9 g/100 g). Besides, it is rich in minerals (3 g/100 g) and phytochemicals (Gopalan et al., 2010).
       
Laddu is an Indian sweet made from a mixture of flour, sugar and shortening and other ingredients that vary by recipe, which is shaped into a ball. Further, the significance of traditional foods is more appreciable when their nutritive value is known. Hence the study was taken to develop the Foxtail millet based laddu and it was nutritionally analysed.

The present study was carried out in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, UAS, Dharwad Karnataka during the year 2018-2019. The raw materials like foxtail millet, bengal gram dhal flour, ghee and sugar powder were purchased from the local market of Dharwad, Karnataka. The millet grains were washed, rinsed, shade dried and milled from the local commercial milling machine.
 
Development of Foxtail millet laddu
 
Standardization trials indicated that acceptable foxtail millet laddu (Fig 1 shows the preparation of optimised Laddu) could be developed by incorporating 50 per cent foxtail millet flour, 50 per cent bengal gram dhal flour, 45 per cent ghee, 75 per cent sugar powder and 40 minutes of roasting time in the standard laddu recipe (Sudha, 2016). Besan laddu (100 per cent bengal gram dhal flour, 50 per cent ghee, 85 per cent sugar powder and 45 minutes of roasting time) was taken as control (Fig 2 shows the besan laddu and the developed foxtail millet laddu).





Physical parameters
 
a. Colour of the laddu
 
Chromatic component, L (lightness), a (redness) and b (yellowness) values of sample were measured using spectrophotometer (Colour lab + Premier colour scan).
 
b. Weight of the laddu (g)
 
The weight of a laddu was determined by the weighing balance.
 
c. Volume of the laddu (ml)
 
It was determined by seed displacement method. Mustard seeds were loaded into 100 ml beaker until it is full and it was unloaded back. The laddu was put into the beaker and the measured mustard seeds were loaded back again in the beaker. The remaining mustard seeds left outside the beaker were measured using the measuring cylinder and volume (ml) was noted.
 
d. Circumference of the laddu (cm)
 
A white thread was rolled around the laddu to measure the circumference. And this threads length was measured with a measuring scale.
 
Nutritional analysis
 
The developed Foxtail millet Laddu were analysed for proximate composition, sugars and minerals.
 
a. Moisture
 
A known quantity of sample was weighed into previously weighed moisture cups and dried in a hot air oven at 98 to 100 ºC to a constant weight (AOAC 2005). Moisture content was calculated using the formula.   
    
b. Protein:
 
Nitrogen content of cookies was estimated in Kelplus dx of pelican make and crude protein content was calculated by multiplying with a factor 6.25 (AOAC 2005).
   
c. Fat:
 
Fat content was estimated in Socs plus apparatus SCS -2 model of pelican make. The total crude fat content was calculated using the formula (AOAC 2005).
                                                 
d. Crude fibre
 
Crude fibre was estimated by the acid alkali digestion method by using fibra plus instrument (Pelican equipments). Fat free sample was hydrolysed with sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide. The residue obtained after digestion was dried in a crucible and its weight was recorded (We).The dried residue was then ashed in a muffle furnance at 600^oC for three hours and its weight (Wa) was recorded (AOAC 2005).
   
e. Ash
 
Samples of 5 g was weighed in a previously weighed silica crucible and charred to remove the organic matter. The process was continued till no more smoke emitted. The crucible with charred sample was ignited to ash in a muffel furnace at 600 ºC for 6 hours. The crucibles was allowed to cool in desiccator and weighed (Anonymous, 1990). Total mineral (ash) content is calculated employing the formula.
                                                                                        
f. Total carbohydrate
 
The total carbohydrate content was calculated by the following formula.
g. Sugar
 
The total and reducing sugars were determined as per the procedure of Nelson Somogyi (Sadhasivam and Manikam, 2008). Non reducing sugar was computed by subtracting reducing sugar from total sugar.
   
h. Iron, zinc, copper, manganese and calcium (mg/100g)
 
Iron, zinc, copper, manganese were determined by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy method. Calcium was determined by precipitating it as calcium oxalate and titrating the solution of oxalate in dilute H₂SO₄ against standard KMnO₄ (Anonymous, 1990).
 
Sensory evaluation
 
Sensory qualities of the value added foxtail millet based laddu was conducted in comparison with besan laddu. A nine point hedonic scale was used, which describes sensory attributes viz., appearance, colour, texture, taste and flavour on nine point scale. Sensory evaluation was done by a panel of 15 semi trained judges.
 
Statistical analysis
 
Paired ‘t’ test was used to compare the physical parameters and nutrient composition of besan and foxtail millet laddu.

From Table 1 it is observed that there was no significant difference in ‘L’ values of laddu i.e. besan laddu (53.56) and foxtail millet laddu (52.99). There was increase in the darkness with 50 per cent foxtail millet flour incorporated laddu however this was not significant. Value of ‘a’ were 13.14 and 14.32 for foxtail millet laddu and besan laddu respectively. Value of ‘b’ for foxtail millet laddu and besan laddu were 29.91 and 32.73 respectively. Weight of the foxtail millet laddu and besan laddu were 30.66g and 33.66g respectively. Volume of foxtail millet laddu was 36.13 and for besan laddu 39.66 ml. Circumference of foxtail millet laddu and besan laddu were 12.83 cm and 14.10 cm respectively. Statistical analysis showed that there was significant difference for colour ‘a’ and ‘b’ values, weight, volume and circumference in both the laddus i.e. besan laddu and optimised foxtail millet based laddu.

Table 1: Physical parameters of besan laddu and developed foxtail millet laddu.

       
The proximate composition of besan laddu and foxtail millet laddu are depicted in the Table 2. Fat and protein content were significantly higher in besan laddu i.e. 21.49 and 13.55 g/100g respectively when compared to foxtail millet laddu. It may be due to higher protein content in bengal gram dhal flour and more quantity ghee in besan laddu The moisture content was higher in besan laddu (0.45%) when compared to foxtail millet laddu (0.25%). However, there was no significant difference. The energy content was significantly higher in besan laddu (499.61 Kcal) when compared to foxtail millet laddu (471.60 Kcal). It is because of more ghee content in besan laddu. Crude fibre (2.64), ash (1.11) and carbohydrate (66.85) content was higher in foxtail millet laddu when compared to besan laddu i.e 0.56, 0.90 and 62.99 respectively. This is due to foxtail millet flour, which has higher crude fibre content. The results are in accordance to that of fiber enriched laddu developed by Yenagi et al. (2010) where there was increase in crude fibre with the addition of foxtail millet flour in the product.


       
The sugar content of besan and foxtail millet laddu is shown in the Table 3. The total sugar of foxtail millet laddu was higher 24.10 g as compared to besan laddu (21.79 g). The non-reducing sugar present in foxtail millet laddu and besan laddu was 22.91 and 20.53 per cent respectively. And the reducing sugar was 1.33 and 1.25 per cent in besan and foxtail millet laddu respectively. However, there was no significant difference found in total sugar, reducing sugar and non-reducing sugar in foxtail millet laddu and besan laddu.

Table 3: Sugar content of besan laddu and foxtail millet laddu.

       
The mineral content of foxtail millet laddu and besan laddu are depicted in the Table 4. The calcium and iron content of foxtail millet laddu were high 9.34 mg and 2.44 mg respectively compared to control laddu 8.27 mg and 2.44 mg respectively. However it was not significant. Copper was higher in foxtail millet laddu (0.81 mg/100 g) compared to besan laddu 0.05 mg/100 g but were not significant. Zinc and manganese were higher in besan laddu compared to foxtail millet laddu. However, difference were not significant. This may be attributed to the incorporation of foxtail millet flour which is a rich source of trace elements. Previous studies also report increase in mineral content of foxtail millet based products like muffin and laddu (Garwadhiremath, 2011 and Yenagi et al., 2010).


       
Table 5 shows the sensory scores of developed foxtail millet and besan laddu. The score was 8.5 for the colour, flavour and overall acceptability of foxtail millet laddu. However for appearance and taste the score was 8.4. For texture the score was 8.6. Overall acceptability score of besan laddu was 8.5. Texture (8.9) of besan laddu score higher and then followed by the flavour (8.6). And for appearance, colour, taste the score was 8.5. However, there was no significant difference between the foxtail millet laddu and besan laddu. Roasting process enhances the colour and flavour of the foxtail millet and Bengal gram dhal flours (Sudha et al., 2021). With regard to mouthfeel, in foxtail millet laddu, fibre texture can be felt whereas besan laddu has soft texture and just melts in the mouth. In some of the other value added products like foxtail millet based burfi, muffin, bread, vermicelli, pasta and extruded snacks upto 50 per cent incorporation of foxtail millet was carried out and were highly acceptable (Srivastava and Singh, 2003, Garwadhiremath 2011, Deshapande and Poshadri, 2011, Balloli et al., 2014, Ranganna et al., 2014).

Foxtail millet based laddu prepared were nutritious and rich in protein, fibre and trace minerals. Production of indigenous foxtail millet laddu as homemade processing unit can be recommended. This technology should be encouraged among the women entrepreneurs which is profitable and cost effective.