Formulation and quality evaluation of quinoa enriched ready to cook string hoppers (Indian traditional noodles)

Abstract

ABSTRACT String hoppers, a largely consumed Indian traditional food, was enriched with extremely nutritious quinoa and processed into its ready-to-cook form. The effects of quinoa flour (25–75 g), rice flour (30–70 g) and guar gum (0–2%) on quality parameters of string hoppers were studied and optimized using Box–Behnken design. Water absorption capacity, color difference and rehydration ratio increased, whereas solid gruel loss decreased with an increase in the amount of quinoa flour. Overall acceptability reflecting sensory attributes of string hoppers reduced at higher levels of quinoa flour. Addition of guar gum improved water absorption capacity and suppressed solid gruel loss. The optimized levels for quinoa flour, rice flour and guar gum were 48.638 g, 30 g and 1.149 g, respectively. The corresponding actual responses of water absorption capacity (62.68%), color difference (23.83), rehydration ratio (1.83), solid gruel loss (1.23%) and overall acceptability (7.27) agree to the prediction of significantly (p < .05) fitted quadratic models.