The process variables for extrusion cooking of pearl millet were standardized and some of the physicochemical characteristics of the millet extrudates and also the nutritional qualities of the millet and legume-based extruded supplementary foods were determined. The millet grits less than 355 microm in size, equilibrated to 18+/-1% moisture content, extruded at 150+/-5 degrees C temperature and at 200+/-10 rpm of the barrel of a twin-screw extruder yielded the extrudates of 1.75+/-0.21 expansion ratio and 7.5+/-1.5 kg breaking strength. The cold and cooked paste viscosity, the melt energy and also the carbohydrate digestibility of the extrudates indicated that the products were pre-cooked and were of ready-to-eat nature. The millet was blended with grain legumes (30%) and also with defatted soy (15%) separately and extruded to prepare ready-to-eat nutritious foods suitable as food supplements to children and mothers. The foods based on the millet and legumes and also the millet and soy contained 14.7% and 16.0% protein with 2.0 and 2.1 protein efficiency ratio values, respectively. The shelf-life of the foods was about 6 months in different flexible pouches at ambient storage conditions. The study showed that applications of extrusion cooking technology to pearl millet have promise for preparation of diversified and value-added food products from the millet.
Foxtail millet grains were decorticated in rice-milling machinery and the decorticated millet was processed to prepare flaked, extrusion cooked and roller-dried products, whereas the native grains were subjected to high-temperature, short-time treatment to prepare popped millet. The nutrient composition and some of the functional properties of the products were determined, principally solubility and swelling power in water, oil absorption capacity and pasting characteristics. Carbohydrate and lipid profiles of the products were also studied. The changes in the starch granular structure caused by heat treatment were examined by scanning electron microscopy. The degree of starch gelatinization was highest in the case of roller-dried millet followed by popped, flaked and extruded products. It was concluded that the cereal processing technologies that were investigated could be successfully applied to foxtail millet to prepare ready-to-eat or use products, thereby increasing its utilization as a food.
The present work looks at the role of phytate-degrading Pediococcus pentosaceus CFR R123 application in functional foods to evaluate the fate of phytate and calcium solubility during fermentation. Under standard conditions, CFR R123 grown in modified MRS containing sodium phytate CFR R123 showed 43% degradation of sodium phytate in 15 minutes. Fermentation of malted finger millet seed coat (MFSC) and soya milk (SM) with CFR R123 for 12 h resulted in 5.6-12% phytate degradation and a notable increase in calcium availability (125%) was observed. The isolate CFR R123 was found to decrease the phytic acid levels resulting in increased levels of calcium during MFSC and soya milk fermentation. This study introduces phytate-degrading P. pentosaceus CFR R123 that can be employed as a starter culture as well as an ingredient of functional food to provide nutritive benefits to the consumer with a natural phenomenon.
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