Effect of sustainable household cooking techniques on nutritional, textural properties, and quality characteristics of finger millet (Eleusine coracana) flour porridge

Finger millet flour porridge is a popular complementary and nutritional food for infants, children, and adults that prevents cardiovascular and chronic diseases. This study aimed to evaluate finger millet flour characteristics with nutritional, textural, rheological, and quality assessment of Porridge when subjected to traditional and sustainable household cooking methods. The study found that finger millet flour is rich in antioxidant properties (71.50 +/- 0.09%), phenolic (123.82 +/- 0.11 mg GAE/100 g), and flavonoid content (41.66 +/- 2.38 mg QE/100 g). The compared results for all porridge samples highlight that it exhibits pseudoplastic fluid characteristics. Conventionally cooked porridge showed high shear thinning behavior, low nutrient, firmness (50.51 g), high water activity (0.999), and moisture content of (84.62 +/- 1.92%). Pressure-cooked sample exhibits high nutrients but showed a reduction in phenolic (308.15 +/- 0.44 mg GAE/100 g), and flavonoid content (16.26 +/- 9.91 mg QE/100 g). The sample is highly viscous, firm (653.46 g), and showed high DPPH radical scavenging activity (68.49 +/- 0.08%), along with less moisture, and water activity indicating low microbial stability. Microwave-cooked porridge consists of high phenolic (326.01 +/- 0.19 mg GAE/100 g) and flavonoid (58.33 +/- 2.38 mg QE/100 g) content and firmness (241.26 g). The difference between these cooking conditions is attributed to the stirring mechanism, leeching of nutrients, water usage, temperature, and time. This study recommended pressure and microwave ovens as ideal cooking techniques for retaining nutrients and polyphenolic content, but conventional cooking for high-quality textural properties. These optimized cooking conditions can provide a valuable reference for designing and developing new household Millet cooking machines for Porridge with automated stirrers to enhance nutritional, textural, and overall consumer acceptability.