Effect of Roasting, Sprouting and Fermentation on the Sensory Attributes of Cereal-Legume Supplemented Weaning Food

Abstract: Weaning is a critical phase during which milk alone cannot fulll the growing nutritional needs of the child. The growth and development relay mostly on the type of weaning food provided to the child. Introduction of different ingredients such as legumes increase the nutritional potential. However, acceptability is totally dependent on the sensory characteristics of the weaning food. Objective: To determine the effect of roasting, sprouting and fermentation on the sensory attributes of cereal-legume supplemented weaning food. Methods: The study was conducting during 9 months to prepare weaning food from roasted, sprouted and fermented wheat and lentil in the ratio of 70:30. The prepared weaning food was tested for the sensory attributes i.e. color, avor, texture and overall acceptability using 9 point hedonic scale in the Food Science and Technology laboratory at University Institute of Diet and Nutritional Science, The University of Lahore. The data were analyzed using Statistix 8.1 Results: The results of sensory evaluation showed that weaning food prepared by roasting technique was most liked for color (6.30 ± 0.83), avor (7.00 ± 0.83), texture (6.97± 0.81) and overall acceptability (6.93 ± 0.74) by the sensory panelist. Conclusions: It can be concluded from the study that legumes can be used for supplementing wheat our for the preparation of weaning food. Roasted lentils and wheat based weaning food was most liked over sprouted and fermented samples. Key words: Weaning food, cereal-legume, roasting, fermentation, sprouting and sensory evaluation.