Development of Iron Fortified Chocolate Flavoured Rice Flakes

Abstract

Flaked or beaten rice is a very popular traditional product in India and other rice consuming countries. This product consumed as snack after roasting/frying and spiced or after soaking in water and seasoning with spices and vegetables. In order to re-introduce rice flakes, value addition in terms of flavor and taste will aid in consuming rice flakes as a major cereal breakfast. Iron deficiency and anemia are important problems affecting billions of people throughout the world. These are more prevalent in underdeveloped countries, during rapid growth periods and when nutritional requirements and/or losses are higher. This research work has investigated the effect of flavour addition on the quality of rice flakes with iron fortification. The results from the physical properties of flaked rice and raw rice indicated that there was an increase in water holding capacity, sedimentation volume as compared to raw rice based on the gelatization of starch. Another attempt was made to add chocolate flavour to rice flakes as result of coating. Chocolate sauce was coated to rice flakes using enrober. During the coating process rice flakes were fortified with fortificant Ferrous fumarate in three concentrations. Chocolate-coated rice flakes were having high iron compound than another variation. As the flakes were coated with cocoa powder, the Catechin content was also eniriched in the flakes. The storage stability study of coated rice flakes was conducted for one month at ambient temperature. The values obtained for Free Fatty Acid (FFA) and Peroxide Value (PV) were in acceptable range. After storage, sensory evaluation indicates that there was no change in flavour, taste, and overall acceptability on quality of product.