NUTRITIONAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF COOKIES MADE FROM WHEAT – HIGH QUALITY CASSAVA FLOUR (HQCF) SUPPLEMENTED WITH SILKWORM (BOMBYX MORI) FLOUR

Abstract

ABSTRACT Wheat has been the primary raw material in the baking industry due to its gluten content, which provides desirable physicochemical properties in baked products.To reduce dependency on wheat imports, HQCF has been successfully used as a partial replacement for wheat flour due to its clarity in appearance and low flavour. Edible insects like silkworm pupae have high nutritional value in terms of protein, lipids, vitamins, and minerals, and are economically sustainable. The objectives of this study was to determine the nutritional and physical properties of cookies made from wheat-HQCF and silkworm flour. Simplex-Centroid mixture design (SCMD) for three-component mixture was used to generate fourteen experimental runs showing different levels of flour combination ranging from 70-100% for wheat flour (WF) , 0-30% for high quality cassava flour (HQCF), and 0-30% for silkworm flour (SF). Functional, proximate and mineral analyses were carried out on the flour blends and proximate, mineral, physical, colour and sensory properties determination on the cookies. Data from experimental runs were analyzed using ANOVA, regression model, and numerical optimization. Amino acid profile, antioxidant, anti-nutrient and textural properties determination were carried out on the optimized cookies. For the functional properties, the mean range of the water absorption capacity, swelling capacity, oil absorption capacity, solubility index and bulk density were 47.39-132.67%,4.05-8.61%,81.33-138.00%, 13.00-17.15% and 0.67-0.75%, respectively. For the cookies, moisture, protein, fat, ash, fibre and carbohydrate content ranged from 18.34-23.24%, 8.73-20.11%, 10.01-13.90%, 0.85-2.31%, 0.52-1.14% and 45.23-58.5%, respectively. The mean value potassium, sodium, phosphorus , copper, magnesium, calcium, zinc and iron ranged from 131.95-481.62mg/g, 66.00-340.65mg/g, 80.16-350.50mg/g, 0.11-0.23mg/g, 37.74-194.77mg/g, 52.76-272.72mg/g, 0.12-0.53mg/g and 1.27-6.50mg/g, respectively. Mineral ratios-Na:K, K:Na, Ca:P, Ca:Mg, Zn:Cu, Fe:Zn and and K/(Ca+Mg) ranged from 0.50-0.60mg/g, 1.73-2.0mg/g, 0.17-0.76mg/g, 1.33-1.41mg/g, 1.09-2.36mg/g, 10.58-13.82mg/g and 1.27-1.47mg/g, respectively. Physical properties were weight (9.06-12.50g), diameter (3.95-4.10cm), spread ratio (3.04-4.38cm), thickness (0.90-1.35cm) and overall sensory acceptabilitywas 5.76-7.78. The optimized samples (WF72HQCF6SF22 and WF79HQCF18SF3) had desirability levels of 0.775 and 0.753, respectively. Sample WF72HQCF6SF22exhibited the highest value of essential amino acids and anti-oxidants. The high amino acids value was primarily due to the inclusion of silkworm flour in the cookies. This result highlighted the potential benefits of using silkworm flour as a protein-rich ingredient in food products. The incorporation of silkworm flour not only improved the nutritional composition (amino acids and anti-oxidants) but also the physical properties. In conclusion, the inclusion of high quality cassava-silkworm flour had significant positive effecton the swelling capacity, protein, ash, carbohydrate, calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, magnesium and sensory properties. Optimized sample made from 72% wheat flour, 6% high quality cassava flour and 22% silkworm flour is recommended for commercial production due to its high protein content, amino acid profile, overall acceptability and desirability of 0.775.