One breakthrough that the field of nutraceuticals has witnessed is Wheatgrass, which is proposed to have remarkable antioxidant capacity, which can prove to be a functional food for the management of chronic diseases. Thus an attempt was made to look into the nutrient content of freeze-dried wheatgrass powder, incorporate it in traditional recipes and investigate the acceptability of these recipes. It was found that wheatgrass has excellent nutrient content as reflected by its high iron content (57.9mg) and β-carotene content (360µg). For testing the acceptability, five recipes: Khakhra, Thepla, Muthiya, Dal and Buttermilk, which involve different method of cooking were selected and wheatgrass was incorporated at levels 1g, 1.5g and 2g per serving in case of Muthiya, dal and Buttermilk and per unit in case of Khakhra and Thepla. The acceptability of the organoleptic attributes was evaluated using sensory evaluation employing the Composite scoring test, by a semi trained panel of 12 subjects. The mean scores for Dal, buttermilk, Khakhra, Muthiya and Thepla were 7.0, 6.5, 6.9, 6.5, 7.3 respectively, which was indicative of good acceptability. It was observed that the acceptability was higher in recipes with low water content like Khakhra and Thepla, than recipes with high water content viz., Dal, Buttermilk and Muthiya. Therefore, wheatgrass will have excellent acceptability if used as a functional food component in day to day recipes and its nutritional quality can serve to ameliorate various chronic health conditions.
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