Quality Evaluation and Acceptability of Cookies Produced From Rice (Oryza glaberrima) and Soybeans (Glycine max) Flour Blends

This study was carried to evaluate the quality attributes and acceptability of cookies produced from rice (Oryza glaberrima) and soybeans (Glycine max) flour blends, a gluten-free product. Simplex lattice design was used for product formulation that provided five experimental runs of rice flour and soy beans flour composites. Five composite flour samples were mixed in the following ratios 100:0, 95:5, 90:10, 85:15 and 80:20. Cookie samples produced from the combinations were evaluated for proximate, anti-nutrients, amino acids and vitamins profile analyses and sensory evaluation. Results showed (P <= 0.05) that the protein contents in % ranged from 8.94 +/- 0.01 to 17.51 +/- 0.03% while tannin, phytates, trypsin inhibitors and protease inhibitors in mg/100g ranged from 34.63 +/- 0.06 to 70.82 +/- 0.06, 69.82 +/- 0.08 to 98.83 +/- 0.09, 30.62 +/- 0.02 to 69.61 +/- 0.08 and 28.27 +/- 0.02 to 64.79 +/- 0.08, respectively. The thiamine, niacin and riboflavin contents in mg/100g for the cookies produced from rice and soybean flour blends with 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% soy beans flour substitution were 0.41 +/- 0.01, 0.53 +/- 0.01, 0.59 +/- 0.01, 0.68 +/- 0.01 and 0.77 +/- 0.01 for thiamine, 3.22 +/- 0.02, 3.31 +/- 0.02, 3.63 +/- 0.02, 3.74 +/- 0.02 and 3.89 +/- 0.02 for niacin, 0.18 +/- 0.00, 0.30 +/- 0.00, 0.46 +/- 0.01, 0.58 +/- 0.01 and 0.70 +/- 0.01 for riboflavin, respectively. The results of sensory evaluation also showed that increase in the level of soy beans flour in the composite rice flour improved overall acceptability of the cookies. Furthermore, cookies with 85% rice flour and 15% soybean flour had the highest overall acceptability value of 7.6. Cookies with 85% rice flour and 15% soybean flour also had the highest ratings in terms of crispiness, texture, flavour, taste and colour.