Quality Evaluation of Antioxidants, and Calcium-rich Sucrose-free Biscuit Based on Spirulina and Unutilized Eggshell

In many low and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa and South Asia, calcium intake is still inadequate even below half of the requirements.Obesity and diabetes related complications and antioxidants deficiency are also increasing worldwide.Therefore, an experiment has been done to formulate antioxidant and calcium-enriched biscuit with spirulina and eggshell powder at varying proportions.Spirulina is a protein and antioxidant enriched algae, and eggshell is a calcium enriched unutilized food leftover.Five different biscuit samples S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5 were developed with different combinations of the mentioned ingredients.All five biscuit formulations were evaluated concerning their sensory characteristics along with the proximate and microbial analysis.Biscuits with spirulina powder and eggshell powder contain more protein, ash, fiber, antioxidants, and mineral contents in contrast to the control biscuit sample.The proximate analysis indicated that the incorporation of spirulina and eggshell powder enhanced the protein content from 10.91% to 12.78%, ash 3.35% to 3.90%, fat 11.05% to 11.52%, fiber 0.15% to 0.32%, calcium content from 755 mg to 2785.5 mg/100 g and total antioxidant contents from 9.6% to 27.3% of the biscuit samples in a significant (p ˂ 0.05) way.Microbial analysis indicates that the incorporation of the ingredients does not affect the shelf-life of the produce.Moreover, the sensory evaluation of this study indicated that the 3% spirulina and 6% eggshell powder induced biscuit (S4) was more accepted.In conclusion, the incorporation of conjugated spirulina and eggshell powder has the potential to enhance the nutritional composition of conventional biscuits, especially calcium and antioxidants.