Improvement of functional couscous formulation using ancient wheat and pseudocereals

Abstract

Traditional Turkish couscous is produced by coating of durum wheat bulgur with wheat flour and water or milk in Turkey. In this study, einkorn bulgur was used instead of durum bulgur in couscous production. For coating of einkorn bulgur; emmer flour (EF) was used instead of wheat flour as control couscous. In other formulations, EF replaced with amaranth flour (AF), buckwheat flour (BF) and quinoa flour (QF) at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% ratios as separately to improve the nutritional properties of couscous. The couscous samples were evaluated for color values, chemical attributes, cooking quality, textural and sensory properties. The use of high levels of AF and QF in the couscous formulation increased the ash and fat content compared to the control and traditional couscous samples. Increasing levels of BF and QF increased total phenolic content, DPPH and FRAP antioxidant activity of couscous samples from 8535.40 mg GAE/kg, 13.04% and 2249.62 mg TE/kg up to 14752.25 mg GAE/kg, 51.52% and 6297.54 mg TE/kg for BF, from 8281.77 mg GAE/kg, 13.08% and 1990.10 mg TE/kg up to 10788.96 mg GAE/kg, 27.5% and 4442.50 mg TE/kg for QF. The use of 100% BF and QF instead of EF reduced the phytic acid content by 50.3% and 36.3%, respectively. Significant increases were observed in weight/volume increase and cooking loss values with pseudocereal addition level of 100%. The sensory analyses indicate that couscous prepared with AF was mostly liked by the panelist in terms of overall acceptability.