Development and Quality Evaluation of Commercial Maize Products

Abstract

The composition of maize endows it with many health benefits. However, maize is naturally deficient in lysine and tryptophan, which are two of eight amino acids regarded as essential for humans and are necessarily to be part of a balanced diet. In light of the above deficiency found in traditional maize the use of Quality Protein Maize (QPM) has brought its usage more productive. QPM differs from common maize in the weight distribution of the five protein fractions. The extent of the change is variable and affected by genotype and cultural conditions. It has been found, however, that the opaque-2 gene reduces the concentration of zein by some 30 percent. As a result, lysine and tryptophan content is higher in QPM varieties than in common maize. QPM based value added products are not available in the market for the consumer, even though products developed from maize have high market potential and are most important food alternative to protein malnourished and gluten sensitive patients. Centre of Excellence on Processing & Value Addition of Maize” initiated in 2014 under nutri farm pilot scheme, Government of India, has developed more than 20 innovative products of maize (Bakery products: Nankhatai, Bread, Toast, Cakes, Salted Cookies, Soya Protein Biscuit, Coconut Cookies, Muffins; Extruded Products: Whey and Butter milk based Pastine, Puffcorn; Traditional Prodcuts: Fortified popcorn, Khaman, Dhokla, Ladoo, Namkeen, Shakkarpara, Mathri). Most of the products have been analyzed for their nutrient content at Food Laboratory of Junagadh Agriculture University, Junagadh, Gujrat. Further they were subjected to panel of judges & consumers for their organoleptic acceptability and they all were found in the category of “liked moderately” to “liked extremely” category of 9 point hedonic scale. Out of several developed few products like Nankhatai, Pastine Khaman, coconut cookies & cake were introduced to market, small shops, & bakery outlets. It was observed that these products have great market potential and may be introduced as the alternatives/ replacement to the refined wheat flour. Results showed that the protein concentrations improved in the developed QPM based products. Salted biscuits were consumable by all age group as snack with tea or coffee. Pasta is partially cooked extruded product which was strongly liked by children and has high market potential. It can be concluded that incorporation of quality protein maize in place of refined wheat flour improved the quality of the maize products in terms of organoleptic acceptability and nutritional parameters. Hence blend of QPM flour and refined wheat flour has potential as an alternative to replace refined wheat flour intake for better health and innovative commercializable product.