Development and Quality Evaluation of Maize-Based Fortified Nutritious Bar

Consumers demand and desire health foods, which are portable, convenient and proportioned as well. Cereal bars have emerged as an attractive and innovative option for convenience food product. With this aim, energy bar samples were prepared using popped maize flour (12–22 %) in addition to other ingredients such as legume grits, soy protein. Three sweeteners viz. corn syrup (CS), honey (H) and jaggery (J) were used with 45, 50 and 55 % levels. The influence of level and type of sweetener was studied on colour characteristics, cutting strength and sensory characteristics. All the quality characteristics were significantly affected by type of sweetener except for taste score. Further, all the parameters except for aroma and yellowness index were also affected by level of sweetener. The sensory panellists rated the jaggery-based samples superior for all the sensory parameters. The cutting strength was highest for jaggery-based samples. Based upon the sensory evaluation, the sample having 17 % popped corn flour and 50 % jaggery was found most acceptable and analyzed for proximate composition. 100 g of optimised corn-based energy bar provided 9.2 g fat, 12.64 g protein, 3.14 g total minerals, 158.79 mg calcium, 4.114 mg iron and 414.4 kcal energy. The free fatty acid content and microbial load of the energy bar sample was within the acceptable limit for 3 months under refrigerated conditions. Thus, corn-based energy bar is a better choice for a quick meal or snack than a fast food meal and other highly processed packaged convenience foods.