Production of high nutritional value crackers from some processed vegetables

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

Food Technology Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

Vegetables are critical to good health, and certainly good for all age categories as it forms an 
important portion of a healthy diet. Nutritional, chemical composition, physical properties and 
sensory quality characteristics of vegetables crackers made by mixing wheat flour and fresh, 
puree and dried for carrot, beetroots and turnip leaves were studied. Wheat flour and puree of 
turnip leaves, carrot and beet and their powder were mixed in the ratio of 100:00, 90:10 and 
80:20 individually. The results showed a significant increase in the antioxidant activity in 
carrots, beets and fresh turnip leaves, and its decrease after processing (puree and dried). It 
was noted through this study that the total flavonoids were higher in the puree samples than 
the fresh ones. Turnip leaf showed a significant increase in phenols and total flavonoids in the 
case of pureed and dried samples. There were slight significant changes in the betalains and 
carotenoids pigment in beets and carrot after boiling and drying, respectively and the changes 
were not noticeable in the state of chlorophyll after boiling and drying in turnip leaves. The 
content of protein and fiber were significantly increased in samples containing turnip leaves, 
as well as iron, zinc, phosphorous and calcium in samples containing beets and turnip leaves. 
These crackers meet a large percentage of the daily needs of these minerals for children from 
4 to 8 years old. We conclude from the results of sensory tests that replacing wheat flour with 
different percentages of dried turnip leaves improved the sensory properties of crackers 
compared to boiled turnip leaves, while boiled carrots and beet roots were better in sensory 
evaluation than dry ones. 

Keywords