Development and Evaluation of Ready to Cook Extruded Food from Mushroom and Fruit Flours.

Convenient foods are defined as fully prepared or partially prepared food items where some or all of the preparation time, culinary skills or energy inputs are provided by food processor than a home maker. The study proposed to find the suitability of fruit flours namely jackfruit and breadfruit flour in the production of extruded products. The study tried different combinations of oyster mushroom and fruit flours and the best treatment was selected using organoleptic evaluation. Incorporation level of 90 per cent of fruit flours and 10 per cent of mushroom flour was found suitable than other combinations. In the selected treatments from each fruit flour based pasta, nutritional evaluation of proximate values and minerals, shelf life studies and cost of production was carried out. When comparing the sensory aspects of the two pastas, jackfruit-based pasta was preferred, whereas breadfruit-based pasta was superior in terms of nutritional value. The study thus demonstrates that both underutilised fruits can be effectively utilized in the manufacturing of low cost gluten-free pasta with additional research on industrial production and modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]