Production of Value-Added Amaranth (Amaranthus) and Cereal Based Food Products
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Date
2010-03
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Amaranth is easy to grow, nutrient rich and underutilized pseudo cereal that has important role in
actions against hunger and malnutrition that occur due to low rainfall conditions. The study focused
on the development of bread and malt flour from blends of amaranth with cereals (wheat, maize and
rice). Proximate composition, physicochemical and farinographic properties were investigated to
characterize raw materials and food products. Factorial design was implemented and experimental
data were subjected to ANOVA to check for significant differences (p<0.05). Analysis was done using
SAS version 6.12 statistical software. Tukey’s studentized test was used for comparisons of means.
Results of proximate composition analysis showed that amaranth had higher protein, fat, ash, iron,
zinc, and calcium 14.19%, 7.94%, 2.39%, 13.73mg/100gm, 4.23 mg/100gm, and 76.13 mg/100gm
respectively than wheat which had 9.41%, 2.33%, 0.57%, 2.28 mg/100gm, 0.94mg/100gm, and 18.99
mg/100gm respectively. Accordingly, wheat flour showed improvement in the aforementioned
contents with increase of amaranth substitution 5-30%. Blending only 5% amaranth improved zinc
and calcium contents by17% and 144%. Blending amaranth with wheat lowered phytate contents
while exhausting tannin contents to below the detectable limits. Amaranth substitution of 5%-30%
increased the water absorption quality of the dough from 52.2 to 54.4%. It also increased dough
development time from 3.5 to 5 minutes while decreasing the stability time from 5.6 to 2 minutes.
Amaranth flour had the least measurable falling number (61s), low gluten content (gluten free) and
dense colour (18.39) which affected the end product’s sensory qualities. However, gluten content of
blend flours containing 5-10% amaranth were within recommended range for bread production.
Blending significantly(p<0.05) improved colour of amaranth (18.39) in which the value for blend
flour containing 5-10% amaranth ranged from 4.45-6.22. The overall flour quality and amaranth
bread sensory evaluation indicated that up to 10% amaranth substituted wheat flour baked at 220oC
for 18minutes can be effectively used in amaranth bread production. The bread contained 0.59% fat,
8.44% protein, 1.41% fiber, 2.54% ash, 24.3% moisture, 1.18mg/100g zinc, 60mg/100g calcium,
4.6mg/100g iron with 3.2cm3/g bread volume index.Study on malting amaranth, maize and rice
indicated optimum steeping/germination time conditions for amaranth, rice and maize malting were
at 24h/60h, 36h/72h, and 36h/48h respectively. Nutritionally, the calcium content of blend of malted
amaranth and rice flour was higher than blend of malted amaranth and maize flour by more than
28%. Minimal differences were observed in protein, fat, fiber, iron, zinc and phosphorous contents
between the two blend (amaranth-rice, amaranth- maize) malt flours. In conclusion, up to 10%
amaranth can be incorporated to wheat flour for bread production and a combination of malted amaranth and malted rice are good source of calcium. Economic analysis of the suggested industry
level amaranth bread manufacturing is feasible with one year payback. Period.
Keywords::Amaranth, cereals, blend, bread, malt
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Keywords
Amaranth, Cereal Based Food Products, Production