NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION OF WHEAT-UNRIPE PLANTAIN COOKIES 

Abstract

Cookies are a class of baked foods that are characterized by high flour, sugar and shortenings composition and low moisture content. Due to their indulgent nature, high popularity, relatively low cost and high shelf-life stability, they provide a potential means of enhancing nutritional enrichment of the populace in developing countries. This study evaluated the proximate composition mineral evaluation and sensory properties of cookies produced from wheat and unripe plantain flour blends. Unripe plantain flour was produce using methods described by Ogundele and Hiam (2024). Unripe plantain was processed into flour and blend with wheat flour into different ratio of 70:30 (PWA), 60:40 (PWB) and 50:50 (PWC) of wheat-unripe plantain flour respectively, cookies were prepared using the method described by Oladebeye and Oladebeye (2023). The method of A.O.A.C, (2012) was used for proximate, Calcium, magnesium, phosphorous and zinc content of the snack’s samples were determined by the complexometric titration method described by Onwuka (2018). The sensory attributes of the cookies were evaluated using the method described by Iwe (2014). Twenty (20) panelists randomly selected from students of Department of Food Technology. The results of the sensory properties shows that all the cookies sample were accepted by the panelist. The general acceptability of the cookies shows the value of 8.28 for sample PWA, 7.92 for sample PWB and 7.98 for sample PWC. The proximate composition of the two best sample (PWA and PWC) shows that sample PWC recorded higher values for moisture (7.00%), ash (9.73%), crude fiber (4.50%), crude protein (19.15%) and crude fat (18.03%) more than sample PWA which recorded higher value in carbohydrate (53.15%) only. The mineral composition of the two best sample (PWA and PWC) shows that sample PWA recorded higher values for calcium (5.35mg/100g), magnesium (22.71mg/100g), phosphorous (0.15mg/100g), and iron (0.11mg/100g) more than sample PWC which recorded slightly higher value in zinc (4.30mg/100g) only. This shows that addition of unripe plantain flour improves the nutrient composition of the cookies. This study shows that unripe plantain can be used as partial replacement of wheat in cookies and bakery product in order to reduce the burden placed on wheat.