Formulation of Functional Puffy Snack with Pumpkin Powder

Fortified foods provide the needs of the body, not only the disease but also to follow the positive effects for consumers. Puffy snack product consists of oatmeal and whole grain flour that has been by large twin screw extruder. Pumpkin is a good source of carotene, water-soluble vitamins and amino acids. Pumpkin can be processed into flour which has a longer shelf-life. Pumpkin flour is used because of its highly-desirable flavor, sweetness and deep yellow orange –red color. For the production of pumpkin powder, after removing the skin and seeds of pumpkin, the flesh cut into pieces of 5 mm and it was dried in the dryer with hot air at a speed of 1 m/s flow air and temperature of 65°C for 8 hours to a moisture content of 10%. In this study, the effect of replacing pumpkin powder with corn flour at four levels of 0, 10, 15 and 20% on physicochemical properties, sensory properties of product was evaluated. Average treatments were compared with Duncan test at 95%. The effect of pumpkin powder replacement on physicochemical properties of puffy including moisture, total polyphenols, fiber, β-carotene, density and texture were evaluated. In terms of hardness characteristics were shown not significantly different between prepared snacks (P>0.05). With increasing of pumpkin on puffy formulation significant difference was observed between the moisture contents of puffy and sample moisture contents were in the range of 2.58 – 5.11 %. The high amount of β-carotene related to puffs containing of 20% pumpkin powder (0.45 mg/100 gr) and the lowest is in control (0.09 mg/100 gr). With increasing of pumpkin significant difference was observed between the total phenols contents of puffy and sample total phenols contents were in the range of 433-2203 mg/L. The use of higher levels of substitution led to produce production with the higher expansion rate than the control sample. The highest rate of expansion rate was for puffy contains 20% pumpkin powder which is significant with other treatments and blank treatment (P<0.05). The results of sensory evaluation showed that the puffy snack contain 20% pumpkin powder had the highest score for color, texture, flavor and total acceptance. The results of fiber, β-carotene, expansion rate, density and texture showed significant differences compared to the control (P<0.05). With increases in pumpkin powder the amount of puffs fiber increased and was in the range of 1.01-7.07. According to the physicochemical and sensory results the puffy snack contain 20% pumpkin powder introduce as the best formulation.