Browsing by Author "Athira Raj"

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    Process optimisation and quality evaluation of meal replacers for adults
    (Department of Community Science, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, Thrissur, 2026-04-04) Athira Raj; Suman, K T
    Maintaining balanced nutrition has become increasingly challenging for adults as a result of rapid urbanisation, changing lifestyles, and limited time available for meal preparation and consumption. This highlights the importance of developing convenient, affordable, and nutritionally balanced meal alternatives as a significant area of focus in current nutrition research. The present study on “Process optimisation and quality evaluation of meal replacers for adults” was proposed to standardise meal replacers using rice, ragi and other functional ingredients, and to evaluate the quality attributes of the developed products. The study also envisaged to incorporate the developed products with resistant starch and to prepare reconstituted probiotic products from meal replacers, and their quality evaluation. Chocolate and vanilla flavoured meal replacers were standardised in 4 sets each with 10 treatments using germinated and ungerminated rice (40-60%) and ragi (0-20%) flours, banana flour and jackfruit flour either alone or in combination (0-15%) as major ingredients. Soy protein isolate (5%), skimmed milk powder (15%) and other ingredients (defatted peanut flour and rice bran flour) at 5% level were added in all treatments. After combining all ingredients at required level for different treatments, roasting as well as gelatinisation followed by cabinet drying were employed for the preparation of meal replacers. For organoleptic evaluation, 100g of standardised meal replacers were reconstituted with 300 mL of luke warm water before serving. Among different treatments from eight sets, T5 (50% rice, 10% ragi, 15% jackfruit flour, 15% skimmed milk powder, 5% soy protein isolate, and 5% other ingredients) was selected as the best combination with mean scores above 8.0 for all sensory parameters. The standardised meal replacers were adequate in carbohydrates (62.09 - 66.20%), high in protein (22.88 - 25.28%), low in fat (1.84 - 2.32%) with a crude fibre content of 3.08 to 3.46 per cent. The energy value of meal replacers ranged from 365.85 to 376.59 Kcal/100g, which aligned with the recommended calorie of 200 to 400 Kcal specified for meal replacers by Codex standards. The glycaemic index of the formulations was found to be low (43.44 to 51.61). The minerals were highest in meal replacers prepared with ungerminated flours, whereas B vitamins were found to be highest in germinated flour based ones. Germination and gelatinisation significantly improved in vitro digestibility of starch and protein and in vitro availability of minerals. Gelatinisation improved the reconstitution properties, providing better consistency and mouth feel to the products. During six months of storage, the product was highly shelf stable under ambient condition with slight reduction in physico chemical, nutritional and organoleptic qualities. The selected meal replacers were incorporated with 25% of rice based resistant starch (RS3), replacing the rice portion, which increased the resistant starch content by 4 fold in all formulations. It had a positive impact on the consistency and mouth feel of the products. The inclusion of RS3 significantly increased the total starch (44.84 52.40g/100g) and crude fibre (3.93-4.31g/100g) with significant reduction in starch digestibility (56.13-79.27%) and glycaemic index (37.50-46.75). Wide variation in protein, fat, vitamins and mineral contents was not noticed in meal replacers with RS3 addition. The RS3 incorporated meal replacers were also highly shelf stable upto six months of storage. Resistant starch incorporated meal replacers were successfully utilised for developing probiotic set yoghurt and fermented shake using direct vat set (DVS) cultures of Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA-5). Set yoghurt standardised with 10% meal replacer slurry + 90% milk was found be acceptable based on sensory parameters. Optimised growth conditions for LA-5 in set yoghurt was 50g substrate, 4h incubation and 0.1g inoculum concentration with probiotic viability of 96 to 112×109 CFU/mL. Probiotic fermented shakes were standardised in milk using 40 % of roasted and 30% of gelatinised meal replacers as different sets. The optimised fermentation parameters for shake were 50g substrate, 15min. incubation with 0.5g inoculum, supporting high probiotic viability (99 to109×10⁹ CFU/mL). Probiotic set yoghurts and fermented shakes exhibited improved textural and nutritional profiles compared to their non-probiotic counterparts, characterised by higher viscosity, enhanced B vitamins, improved protein and starch digestibility (above 80%), with increased mineral availability ( above 70%) indicating superior nutrient assimilation. The products maintained microbial safety and strong probiotic viability of 83 to 101×10⁹ CFU/mL in set yoghurt and 90 to 102×10⁹ CFU/mL in fermented shakes for 15 days and 10 days of refrigeration respectively, confirming both functional stability and quality retention. Cost of production for meal replacers was found to be approximately Rs.50/100g. Probiotic incorporation doubled the production cost of yoghurt and fermented shake. The developed meal replacers are convenient, ready to use, and cost effective formulations that align well with the nutritional needs and lifestyle pattern of adults. The successful formulation of reconstituted products further demonstrated the meal replacers versatility, enhancing its potential for wider consumer acceptance and commercial application.