CIAE Soy Fortified Nutritious Healthy Noodles
Noodles are increasing in popularity in rural and urban areas of India since they are fast and easy to cook. Noodles can be prepared from a range of flours, depending upon what is available locally. The preparation of noodles is fairly straightforward and does not require extra ingredients or hi-tech equipment. When prepared, packaged and stored suitably, noodles are a safe product in terms of food poisoning risk. They have a fairly long shelf life. Fast food items have assumed a very prominent role in the present diet, especially for the young. Most fast food items, although generally tasty, are lacking in nutrition especially in protein. Wheat flour, Refined wheat flour, soy flour, Oil and salt of different proportion were used for the development of noodles. The soy fortified noodles with 10% FFSF, 10% DFSF, 8% SPI and control formula contained 16.69%, 16.91 %, 16.87% and 8.27% of protein contents respectively. Soy flour blended noodles recorded maximum protein 16.91 percent in sample 1(10% DFSF) and minimum protein 8.27 percent in control sample. Soybean is a rich source of proteins, minerals, soluble fiber, isoflavones etc, all of which improve health, growing awareness about the health and nutritional attributes of soybean have strengthened its popularity worldwide. Furthermore, nutritional fast food items prepared from soybean must be appealing to the palate to allow these foods to compete with other non-nutritional, yet popular, fast food items. Noodles are consumed in large quantities but contain only a minimal amount of protein. The study indicates that dried noodles or instant noodles contain about 9 g protein per 100 g of product. One means for rendering fast food items more nutritious is to fortify them with protein, vitamins, minerals, and the like. Fast food items prepared from materials rich in protein are another answer to the above problem. Soybeans contain a high percentage of protein and others nutrients. Hence it was intended to provide soy-based protein-rich, low-fat nutritious snacks and food/meal with a specific focus on school children of age group 9-18 yrs. The noodle was developed based on ICMR recommendations for this age group. The proximate analysis of soy-fortified noodles using a different ratio of DFSF, whole-wheat flour, and refined wheat flour revealed that samples contain 17% protein which was increased by 115%. The sensory evaluation revealed that up to 20% incorporation of DFSF/FFSF is acceptable in taste. The color and texture of the noodles appealed to the sensory panel. The noodles packaged in PET-MET /LDPE and MET-MET/ LDPE were not affected by moisture and the product was highly acceptable in comparison to that packaged in LDPE and PP.