Efficacy of Natural Enrobing Agents for Adhesion of Seasoning in Roasted Chickpea Snack and Its Acceptability

Abstract

The objective of the study was to develop a low-fat roasted snack using decorticated chickpea with salt and seasonings. For adhesion of seasonings (three blends) to the roasted grain, natural enrobing material such as cashew nuts, almonds, watermelon seeds, pumpkin seeds, coconut milk and corn flour were used. The efficacy of spice adhesion (measured gravimetrically as leftover spice mix in the packaging container) was evaluated along with storage stability (moisture sorption) and acceptability of the developed product (initial and on storage for 30 days). The adhesive property of almond enrobing agent with chili and pepper spice blend was found to be superior. For chili spice blend with pumpkin enrobe, the leftover spice weight was higher, whereas the watermelon seed based enrobe showed least adhesive property with pepper spice blend. Moisture sorption data indicated that in all samples there was an increase in moisture content as the relative humidity increased, however, even at highest relative humidity, none of the products showed any mold growth on storage. The acceptability trials showed that with chili spice blend, the differences were highly significant for all the sensory attributes except color. For pepper spice blend, the differences were significant for appearance and texture, marginally significant for color and overall flavor and not significant for spice flavor. For all the quality parameters, the chili spice mixture scored highest than the pepper spice mixture. All enrobes were equally accepted by panelists for sensory quality with the exception of corn flour which was given low scores. It can be concluded that oilseed/nut based enrobes were very effective in spice adhesion for the dry roasted chickpea snack and resulted in highly acceptable sensory quality.