Formulation trial of ready-to-use therapeutic foods and evaluation of their sensory properties: case of caterpillar-cassava-millet based cookies

The consumption of baked aerated wheat flour products has spread in developing countries. The aim of this research was to determine the proximate, iron content and sensory attributes of cookies produced from different composite flours (cassava, millet, caterpillar). Each raw material was processed separately into flours. These flours were mixed in different proportions. The proximate analysis (proteins, fats, ash, crude fibers, moisture, carbohydrates, energy and iron determination) and the acceptability test was performed as per the protocol described in the literature. Cookies were evaluated for their sensory characteristics by 30 semi-trained panelists made up of students of the Department of Biology, University of Kinshasa. To compare different treatments, Friedman test was used and data were analyzed using XLSTAT 2011. The findings showed that the protein, fat, ash, crude fiber, moisture, carbohydrate contents and the energy density of the cookies ranged from 2.85% to 740.69%, 23.03 to 27.57%, 0.25% to 0.65%, 20.39% to 23%, 5% to 7.13%, 9.54% to 18.43% and 408.15 to 415.17 kcal respectively. While the iron content ranged from 10mg to 14mg. For sensory attributes, there was no significant difference between different formulas. Consumers reported that these formulas were not golden (color), have a pleasant aroma (aroma), a good taste (taste), moderately sweet (sweetness), quite hard (crispiness) and not appealing (external appearance). The overall acceptability was moderately scored compared to the standards. Cookies produced improved nutrients contents and were acceptable to the assessors. There is a need of improving the sensory attributes of these cookies for future studies.