Nutritional and sensory evaluation of Moringa oleifera fortified pasta

Present study was undertaken to evaluate the quality of pasta supplemented with different proportion of Moringa powder. Three treatment (T1, T2 and T3) of Pasta were prepared by using rice flour and different proportion of Moringa powder. Control sample containing only 100% Maida. All the treatment was evaluated for the nutritional and sensory quality. In India pasta is used as a fast food and if the nutritional properties of the pasta will be enhanced then it can be easily useful as a regular food. Pasta with ideal sensory and physical quality is characterized by elasticity and strength of the dough, high tensile strength and minimum cooking losses. India is largest producer of Drumsticks with an annual production of 1.1 to 1.3 million tons of tender fruits from an area of 380km 2. Drumsticks are a store house of important and anti-nutrients. All the parts of this tree are useful for Nutritional, Medicinal and Allied purpose. Drumsticks can be an extremely valuable source of various nutrients for people of all ages. Drumsticks is the richest source of Iron, beta carotene, providing micronutrient including protein, vitamin c, folic acid, Zinc and also calcium and potassium (Gopalan, 2000) Drumsticks leaves also contain good amount of Folates, Thiamine, Pyridoxine and Niacin, Antioxidants such as Flavonoids. Drumsticks are full of essential disease preventing nutrients. In India tradition maintains that the nearing tree can cure 300 diseases. The investigation was carried out in the Food Science and Nutrition Department, College of Home Science, CSA U & T, Kanpur. For this study Drumsticks powder has been prepare by sun drying method. Pasta (extruded product) has been prepared from the Drumsticks powder. Each product has three treatments and one control along with three different replications. Prepared product evaluated with sensory evaluation. According to Sensory Evaluation T1 (7.47) were Best in the product of Pasta among the three treatment that is ‘’liked moderately and liked slightly’’. So, the study suggests that drumstick can be used for prepared fortified food products because of its high acceptability and nutritional and medicinal quality.