Valorization of Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) Bean Shell and Tigernuts (Cyperus esculentus) as Partial Wheat-Flour Replacer in Cookies Formulation: Nutritional and Quality Assessment

Two key sustainable strategies to ensure food and health security are alternative food sourcing and by-products valorization. Hence, this study aimed at producing cookies with potential blood-glucose reducing properties by a partial replacement of wheat flour (W) with tigernuts (T) and pre-treated cocoa bean shell (C) using optimal mixture design. Quality, nutritional, and organoleptic properties of the products were compared with that of commercial reference sample. Essential macro and micro-nutrients such as crude protein, fiber, ash contents, and minerals were significantly higher than the reference sample, especially cookies with up to 16% CBS inclusion. Although maintaining lower starch digestibility, these cookies further exhibited better potential health-benefiting properties such as total phenols, flavonoids, and antioxidant properties and a low glycemic index. Similarly, the formulated snacks showcased high resistant (18.9%–22.3%) and slowly digestible starch (17.5%–23.1%) thus accounting for the reduced predicted glycemic index (< 50.0) (relative to commercial samples > 60%). Regarding safety, the snacks possess permissible level of heavy metals (Pb < 0.05; Cd < 0.02 and Ar < 0.01 mg/kg), which are below regulatory limits. All of the formulations, however, scored above 6.0 on the 9-point scale for sensory qualities, suggesting a desirable level of consumers acceptability.