Functional and Physicochemical Properties of Flour and Cookies from Wheat Soybean and Orange Fleshed Potatoes Blend

The incorporation of nutritionally-rich yet underutilized local crops into popularly consumed cookies could be employed to address undernourishment in snacking. Hence, the feasibility of producing cookies from wheat flour, soybean and orange fleshed sweet potatoes (OFSP) was investigated. A completely randomized design (CRD) was used in the experiment. A total of 5 samples of composite flour in varying proportions of 100:0:0, 75:20:5, 70:20:10, 65:20:15, 60:20:20 were used for the production of cookies. The cookies were subjected to functional, proximate, antinutrient and physical analyses using standard laboratory procedures. The functional properties of the flour increased in addition of soybean and OFSP flour respectively. Results from the proximate composition (%) of the flour samples showed that protein, ash, fat, crude fibre, moisture and carbohydrate ranged from (10.54 - 11.39), (1.61 - 2.95), (1.60 - 3.30), (1.25 - 3.38), (10.77 - 14.36) and (65.99 - 74.22) respectively. The antinutrients analysed for the flour and cookies samples were in ranges of (4.81 - 11.87 mg/100g) (0.52 – 1.64 mg/100g), (11.71 – 19.03 mg/100g) (5.89 – 7.07 mg/100g), (6.87 – 10.73 TIU/g) (0.99 – 1.66 TIU/g) and (7.35 - 12.67 mg/100g) (0.92 – 1.22 mg/100g) for oxalate, tannin, trypsin inhibitor and phytate respectively. The minerals (iron and zinc) were bioavailable in the cookies and the effect of phytate could not hinder their bioavailability. The physical properties (weight, diameter and thickness) of the cookies substituted with constant 20% soybean in combination with variations of OFSP increased significantly (p ˂ 0.05) except the spread ratio. This study suggests that incorporation of soybean and OFSP flour into wheat flour will improve the nutritional quality of cookies mostly consumed by the populace.