High fiber, low glycaemic index (GI) prebiotic multigrain functional beverage from barnyard, foxtail and kodo millet

Consumers are increasingly demanding healthier and natural foods made from whole grains. In view of this, a multigrain functional beverage was made using minor millets such as barnyard, foxtail and kodo millet. Millets are rich in dietary fibre, B vitamins and micronutrients like magnesium, iron and have low glycaemic index. Roasted millets were extracted with water and filtered to obtain the beverage. An appropriate ratio of all grain was obtained from D-optimal mixture design. Accordingly, grain amount was varied from 5 to 8 g, 8-12 g, 6-9 g for barnyard, foxtail and kodo millet respectively. The ratio was selected based on pH, phenolic content, antioxidant activity and sensory overall acceptability of resultant multigrain beverages. Beverage was treated with alpha-amylase enzyme, fructooligosaccharide, galactooligosaccharide, and maltitol to improve the sensorial properties. The final multigrain functional beverage was prepared from 7 g barnyard, 10 g foxtail and 8 g of kodo millet along with 1.2 g/100 g w/v of fructooligosaccharide, containing 5.72 g/100 g total dietary fibre, 47.69 mg ferulic acid equivalents (FAE)/100 mL total phenolic content with a prebiotic activity of 1.56 and 45.07 of glycaemic index (GI) which can be categorized as functional low GI beverage (GI < 55).