Pea Pod Powder as a Value-Added Food Ingredient for Enhancing the Nutritional and Antioxidant Properties of Cookies

The present study aims to develop cookies with high nutritional quality and overcome the limitations of traditional cookies high in fat and sugars. Agro-industrial waste by-product, pea pods, was powdered to supplement the cookie preparation with soy four and inulin powder. The four blend was optimized by taking three factors affecting the fnal product’s processing parameters: Pea-Pod Powder (PPP), Soy Flour (SF) and inulin. The optimization data of PPP cookies shows that responses as color and appearance (P<0.012), favour (P<0.012), crispiness (P<0.013), OAA (P<0.011), hardness (P<0.002), and fracturability (P<0.001) were signifcantly related to the processing of cookies. PPP and SF affected the sensorial characteristics of the cookies, while inulin affected the textural characteristics to a greater extent. The optimised cookies were found to have signifcantly high levels of protein (9.39%), dietary fbre (7.86%), Ca (1.19%), Fe (0.12%), and low fat (17.18%) and total sugar (19.21%) than the control. The DPPH inhibition activity was higher in PPP cookies (0.082%) than control (0.072%). The traditional cookies are not preferred by diabetic and CVD affected persons and are not considered nutritious among the health concerned population. PPP cookies have better shelf life, higher in protein, functional compounds, fbres, minerals and low in sugar. Thus, the product targets such a huge segment of the population, offering various health implications.