Effect of Foxtail Millet, Rock Salt and Black cumin on the Sensory Attributes of Functional Buttermilk

Aims: The study aimed to develop and evaluate functional buttermilk fortified with foxtail millet, rock salt, and black cumin to enhance its nutritional, functional, and sensory qualities. Study Design: Development of Functional Buttermilk enriched with functional ingredients and its analysis. Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at the Department of Dairy Technology, Dairy Science College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, during the period from December 2024 to September 2025. Methodology: Cow milk (fat 3.5%, SNF 8.5%) was incorporated with foxtail millet flour at 5%. Then subjected to heat treatment at 90 °C for 5 minutes, followed by cooling to 37 °C. The milk was then inoculated with 2% Lactococci culture and incubated at 37 °C for 4–5 hours to allow the setting of millet enriched curd. The set curd was broken using agitators, and water was added in a 1:1.5 ratio. Subsequently, rock salt (1.0%) and black cumin seed powder (1.0%) were added. The optimized product was then analysed for its techno functional attributes and microbiological quality. Results: The optimized formulation (5% foxtail millet, 1% rock salt and 1% black cumin seed powder) achieved the highest overall acceptability score (8.45), surpassing the control (8.06). The optimized functional buttermilk contained 1.82% fat, 2.42% protein, 92.8% moisture, 7.2% total solids, 1.36% ash, and 0.49% fiber. It showed 0.40%LA acidity and 61.4% DPPH antioxidant activity, 12.40 cP viscosity, 0.920 water activity, and colour values L* 66.07, a* –0.40, b* 4.30. Coliforms, yeast, and molds were nil. Statistical analysis using R software, and ANOVA with a critical difference at P = 0.05 revealed significant treatment effects. Conclusion: This formulation exhibited enhanced sensory, physicochemical, and antioxidant properties, with no microbial contamination, demonstrating its potential for commercial application as a health-oriented dairy beverage that combines traditional ingredients with functional benefits.

Aim: The present study was conducted to evaluate the proximate analysis, mineral composition, antioxidant activity and resistant starch of finger millet flour and foxtail millet flour and their comparison with refined wheat flour. Introduction: Finger millet grain and foxtail millet grain were procured from district Champawat, Uttarakhand, India. Recent studies indicated that minor millets such as foxtail and finger millet are nutritionally superior to conventional food grains and exhibit hypoglycemic effects due to the presence of a higher proportion of complex carbohydrates, resistant starch and slow-rising sugars. Method: Proximate analysis of finger millet flour, foxtail millet flour and refined wheat flour was done by standard method. All the samples were analysed in three replicates. Resistant starch yield was determined by using the glucose oxidase assay. The antioxidant activity of finger millet flour, foxtail millet flour and refined wheat flour method with some modifications. Results: The results of the proximate analysis showed a significantly higher amount of total ash (2.51 %), crude protein (12.23 %), crude fat (3.49 %), crude fiber (4.79%), and energy (353 kcal) in foxtail millet flour as compared to finger millet flour and refined wheat flour. The insoluble dietary fiber content was significantly higher for foxtail millet flour (11.01%). However, finger millet flour contained significantly higher amounts of soluble dietary fiber (7.00%) and total dietary fiber (17.06%) than foxtail millet flour and controlled refined wheat flour. Foxtail millet flour contained a higher amount of resistant starch (15.10 %) than finger millet flour (14.85%) and refined wheat flour (1.01 %). Conclusion: Total antioxidant activity was also found highest in finger millet flour (71.07 %) as compared to foxtail millet flour (65.85%) and refined wheat flour (20.62%). Finger millet flour contained significantly higher amount of soluble dietary fibre than foxtail millet flour and refined wheat flour. However, soluble dietary fibre content of foxtail millet flour was significantly higher than refined wheat flour.

Influence of malted buckwheat, foxtail and proso millet flour incorporation on the physicochemical, protein digestibility and antioxidant properties of gluten-free rice cookies

Background: Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is the second-most widely planted species of millet. It is known for its health benefits. Laddu are ball-shaped sweets popular in the Indian Subcontinent. Laddus are made of flour, ghee and sugar with other ingredients that vary by recipe. They are often served at festive or religious occasions. Hence, an attempt was made to develop foxtail millet based value added laddu. Methods: Optimization of foxtail millet flour, ghee, sugar and roasting time was carried out. Sensory evaluation was done by nine point hedonic scale. Result: Standardization trials indicated that acceptable foxtail millet laddu could be developed by incorporating 50 per cent foxtail millet flour, 50 per cent bengal gram dhal flour, 45 per cent ghee, 75 per cent sugar powder and 40 minutes of roasting time in the standard laddu recipe. Physical and descriptive qualities of prepared laddus were also carried out. The nine-point hedonic scale was used for sensory evaluation. The developed foxtail millet laddu was highly accepted.

Aims: The study aimed to formulate a foxtail millet probiotic powder enriched with high protein and fibre. Study Design: This was an experimental, laboratory-based study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at the Department of Dairy Microbiology, Dairy Science College, Hebbal, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, between January 2024 and October 2024. Methodology: Foxtail millet was sterilized by autoclaving at 121°C for 15 minutes, while chia seeds and whey protein concentrate (WPC) were sterilized via autoclaving and UV treatment, respectively. Microbiological analysis for contaminants, including aerobic spores, yeasts, and molds, was performed using the pour plate method. The incorporation levels of probiotic cultures into the millet flour were optimized based on their viability. The resulting millet-probiotic powder was enriched with protein (from WPC) and fibre (from chia flour) to meet the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for these nutrients using trial and error method. The protein and fibre contents were quantified using the micro Kjeldahl method and crude fibre estimation, respectively. Statistical analyses were conducted using ANOVA, with a critical difference (CD) at a 5% significance level employed to assess the significance of differences between treatments. Results: Sterilization methods significantly reduced microbial counts in foxtail millet flour, chia flour, and whey protein concentrate. Autoclaving at 121°C for 15 minutes completely sterilized millet and chia flours, while UV-C treatment effectively sterilized WPC, reducing microbial contamination to undetectable levels. The mixed culture of Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-5, Bifidobacterium bifidum BB-12, and Streptococcus thermophilus demonstrated the highest viable counts across various inoculation levels. A 5% inoculation rate was selected for further studies due to its optimal balance of viability and resource efficiency. Whey protein concentrate (WPC) with 80.04% protein content and chia flour with 24.6% fibre were incorporated into the probiotic millet dry mix, enhancing both protein and fibre content to meet Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for adults. A formulation of 74.5g foxtail millet, 68g chia flour, and 7.5g WPC per 150g was optimized, yielding 27.05g of protein (50.09% of the RDA) and 20.39g of fibre (50.99% of the RDA), resulting in a nutritionally dense and functional product. Conclusion: The sterilization methods successfully reduced microbial contamination in foxtail millet flour, chia flour, and whey protein concentrate, ensuring a safe base for probiotic inclusion. The optimized formulation, combining foxtail millet, chia flour, and whey protein concentrate, resulted in a nutritionally dense dry mix, providing 50.09% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance for protein and 50.99% for fibre. This approach demonstrates the potential for developing a functional product that enhances both nutritional value and probiotic viability.

Most of the commercial gluten free products are nutritionally inferior when compared to gluten containing counterparts as manufacturers most often use the refined flours and starches. So it is possible that people on gluten free diet have low intake of fibre content. The foxtail millet flour and copra meal are gluten free and have high fibre and protein contents. The formulation of fibre rich gluten free cookies was optimized by response surface methodology considering independent process variables as proportion of Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) flour in mixed flour, fat content and guar gum. The sugar, sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonates and water were added in fixed proportion as 60, 1.0, 0.4 and 20% of mixed flour weight, respectively. Optimum formulation obtained for maximum spread ratio, fibre content, surface L-value, overall acceptability and minimum breaking strength were 80% foxtail millet flour in mixed flour, 42.8 % fat content and 0.05% guar gum.

Micronutrient deficiencies, particularly nutritional anaemia, iodine deficiency illnesses, and vitamin A insufficiency, have been a problem in developing countries. In order to tackle malnutrition and hidden hunger in developing nations, micronutrient fortification is the most effective method. Micronutrients viz. vitamins, minerals (including trace minerals) are intentionally added to the food for increasing their nutritional content, improving the nutritional quality of food, and providing a public health with minimal risk to health.The present study was undertaken on the formulation of fortified food products using blends of foxtail and barnyard millet flour. Standardization of the fortified food products were on the basis of quality parameters. In the present study, four different types of food products were prepared using blends of foxtail and barnyard millet flour. The developed fortified food products were fortified energy bar respectively. The nutritional characteristics viz. proximate composition, and minerals content of fortified food products were analysed. Consumer acceptability of the fortified food products were also assessed. Fortified food products viz. energy bar were found liked very much as comparison to the control (non-fortified) food samples of the products. The nutritional content of the fortified food products was also higher than the control (non-fortified) food samples. It can be interpreted from the current study that fortification of the foxtail and barnyard millet flour in food products (energy bar) increased their nutritional value. Blend s of foxtail millet and barnyard millet flour enhance the iron, and zinc content in the fortified food products (energy bar). Food products (energy bar) fortified with foxtail and barnyard millet flour was more nutritious than control (non-fortified) food samples prepared from maket value.

Most of the commercial gluten free products are nutritionally inferior when compared to gluten containing counterparts as manufacturers most often use the refined flours and starches. So it is possible that people on gluten free diet have low intake of fibre content. The foxtail millet flour and copra meal are gluten free and have high fibre and protein contents. The formulation of fibre rich gluten free cookies was optimized by response surface methodology considering independent process variables as proportion of Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) flour in mixed flour, fat content and guar gum. The sugar, sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonates and water were added in fixed proportion as 60, 1.0, 0.4 and 20% of mixed flour weight, respectively. Optimum formulation obtained for maximum spread ratio, fibre content, surface L-value, overall acceptability and minimum breaking strength were 80% foxtail millet flour in mixed flour, 42.8 % fat content and 0.05% guar gum.

Millet is a great source of protein, fiber, important vitamins, and minerals.T This gluten-free grain may be cooked in a variety of simple ways, making it simpler for people with celiac disease to include it in their diets. Making bread using foxtail millet flour is challenging since it lacks gluten. Foxtail millet is highly nutritious, non- glutinous and non-acid forming food. They are a rich source of protein, fiber and nutraceuticals components. Hence, they are soothing and easy to digest. The key goals of this study are to enhance the bread's nutritional content and quality and to advance the commercial growth of the whole-grain food sector. Whole foxtail millet flour's impacts were investigated using a texture analyzer. This study employed sugar as a control to examine the impact of the honey powder on bread quality and dough rheology. In the current study, foxtail millet flour will be used in 3 different formulations: S1 (50%) S2 (40%) S3 (20%).These samples have undergone proximate, texture analysis, sensory evaluation, and shelf life studies .The S3 sample with added honey had the best texture characteristics out of all of them, including low hardness, adhesiveness, gumminess, chewiness, and high springiness, cohesiveness, and good crumb and crust structure Sensory evaluation and shelf life studies are analyzed and compared to the control sample. According to the study, foxtail millet flour containing natural honey powder may be effective as a dough enhancer. The use of honey in the bread recipe helped to enhance the rheology of the dough and the sensory and textural features of the loaves without degrading their nutritional or sensory value

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is the second-most widely planted species of millet. It is nutritionally superior to conventional food grains and exhibits hypoglycaemic effect due to presence of higher proportion of unavailable complex carbohydrate and resistant starch. Vermicelli is a popular instant food product which is tasty and easy to make, liked by people of all walks of life, irrespective of age and changing lifestyles. Hence, an attempt was made to develop foxtail millet based value added vermicelli. Standardization trials indicated that acceptable foxtail millet vermicelli could be developed by substituting 50 per cent processed foxtail millet flour in the standard vermicelli recipe. In order to improve functional properties of vermicelli further different trials were carried out by replacing wheat semolina with black gram dhal flour. Black gram dal flour was incorporated at 5, 10, 15 and 20 per cent levels by substituting wheat semolina while level of foxtail millet flour was kept constant at 50 percent. Among all the trials, vermicelli with 20 percent black gram dhal flour was found to be highly acceptable. To improve nutritional quality of developed vermicelli an attempt was made to incorporate fenugreek seed powder at level of 1, 2 and 3 percent, among which vermicelli from 1 percent fenugreek seed powder was found to be acceptable as compared to other samples. Cooking, textural and sensory properties of formulated vermicelli were observed and compared with the control. Thus, the study presented an upshot of potentials of foxtail millet as a natural designer health food for patients suffering with life style diseases.

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is traditionally cultivated in mainly dry land areas and has nutritional importance. The textural characteristics of gels, formed with foxtail millet flour at different concentrations (9-13%, dry solid basis) along with selected cations and hydrocolloids, were determined. Different concentrations of monovalent (NaCl) and divalent (CaCl2 and FeSO4) cations, and hydrocolloids such as gelatin, gellan, starch, xanthan and agar were incorporated in gels. The gel forming ability markedly improved with an increase in the concentrations of CaCl2 and FeSO4, while NaCl had a marginal effect. Gels prepared with 11% of foxtail millet alone were found to sensorially acceptable while addition of 0.5% CaCl2 or 0.2% FeSO4 respective with 10% foxtail millet also resulted in acceptable gels. Among the hydrocolloids, starch and gellan had marked effects on gel formation, and textural and sensory attributes. The principal component analysis (PCA) plot showed that concentration of foxtail millet formed a cluster with sensory hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, and instrumental peak stress, fracture strain and compression energy indicating that these attributes were interrelated to each other. Stickiness and gelling time formed a cluster on the other side of the axis indicating inversely related. Foxtail millet has a good potential for development of new ranges of gelled health benefiting convenience products with nutraceutical property, and the addition of cations helps to achieve acceptable structural integrity.

Millet is one of the indigenous foods known to human and called for its superior nutritional and therapeutic use. Fermentation is one of the most commonly used methods in preparing millet based food products and it has been shown to improve the bioavailability of nutrients. The present study emphasizes on formulation of fermented product with foxtail millet flour as a ready-to-drink beverage. A Lactic Acid Bacterium (LAB) namely Lactobacillus acidophilus conquers a significant part in these developments, has an extended and safe history of practice and consumption in the fabrication of fermented beverages and foods. The methods used for processing foxtail millet are soaking (8 hrs), sun drying, milling, preparing foxtail millet slurry (60%), boiling (80oC), addition of complementary ingredients (almond paste 10%, coconut milk 10%, sugar 20% and cardamom powder 2 g), cooling, fermenting with probiotic strain (Lactobacillus acidophilus 0.2 mg/200ml), incubating (at 37oC for 24 hrs) and bottling. Optimization of probiotic foxtail millet drink was carried out by trained sensory panel members against control (without foxtail millet). Quality characteristics namely proximate, sensory and physicochemical properties like pH were investigated at 12 hours interval for 2 days. The fermented foxtail millet beverage possessed significantly higher values of proximate principles (81% moisture, 3.4 % ash, 12% carbohydrate, 2% protein, 1.6% fat) than control. Scores for all sensory parameters reduced with the increase in storage period. From the present study, it could be concluded that foxtail millet based fermented beverage not only serve as a nutrient dense drink but also it acts as a carrier to deliver beneficial micro biota which would nourish the gut. Recent research studies on fermentation and biotechnology reveal that, daily consumption of probiotics could positively protect human from non-communicable diseases such as ulcer, colitis and cance

Quality characterization, bread making properties and storage stability of foxtail millet incorporated bread ready-mix

Foxtail millet (FM) and green banana (GB) are rich in health-promoting nutrients and bioactive substances, like antioxidants, dietary fibers, and various essential macro and micronutrients. Utilizing GB and FM flour as prebiotics is attributed to their ability to support gut health and offer multiple health benefits. The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of incorporating 10% GB flour (GBF) and different proportions (10-40%) of FM flour (FMF) on the prebiotic potential, antioxidant, nutrient, color, cooking quality, water activity and sensory attributes of noodles. The prebiotic potential, antioxidant, and nutrient of the produced noodles were significantly improved by increasing the levels of FMF. Sensorial evaluation revealed that noodles containing 30% FMF and 10% GBF attained comparable scores to the control sample. Furthermore, the formulated noodles exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) higher levels of protein, essential minerals (such as iron, magnesium, and manganese), dietary fiber (9.37 to 12.71 g/100 g), total phenolic compounds (17.81 to 36.35 mg GA eq./100 g), and total antioxidants (172.57 to 274.94 mg AA eq./100 g) compared to the control. The enriched noodles also demonstrated substantially (p < 0.05) increased antioxidant capacity, as evidenced by enhanced DPPH and FRAP activities, when compared to the control noodles. Overall, the incorporation of 30% FMF and 10% GBF led to a noteworthy improvement in the nutritional and antioxidant qualities of the noodles, as well as the prebiotic potential of the noodles with regard to L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus, and L. acidophilus. The implementation of this enrichment strategy has the potential to confer a multitude of health advantages.

In this research, the physical properties of millet grains such as length, width, thickness, the weight of a thousand grains and the size of a thousand grains were studied for six millet varieties represented by Proso millet grown in Iraq and imported varieties such as foxtail millet (Ukrainian (1) - Russian (2)), finger millet and small millet in addition to sorghum. In this study, small millet was superior in grain length and foxtail millet (Ukrainian 1) in the character of width, while the thickness, finger millet was the highest value. Before soaking for the millet cultivars under study, the bulk density of one thousand grains was (0.66, 0.66, 0.75, 0.74, 0.63, and 0.74) g/ml, respectively. The highest value was for foxtail millet (Russian2), followed by finger millet, and the lowest was for the small millet class within the grain category small. The water absorption capacity was highest in proso millet flour (165.43%) and lowest in foxtail millet flour (Ukrainian1) (118.64%), while the oil absorption capacity was highest in small millet flour (132.66%) and lowest in foxtail millet flour (Russian2) (104.33%). The physical and functional properties are essential to engineers, designers, scientists, processors, and in the design of millet grain handling equipment. The results are also helpful in assessing the quality of the grains used during flour preparation.