Gluten Free Multigrain Nutria-Dense Bars
The nutri bars are one of the popular convenient snack foods, nutritionally balanced, and versatile products made up of whole cereals, millets, fruits, nuts, and sweeteners and used as ideal meal replacers to prevent nutrition related disorders. Nutritionally balanced bars using locally available ingredients were developed and evaluated for their nutritional quality and shelf stability. The developed bars were found to be rich in energy, carbohydrates, protein, fat, minerals, polyphenols, and flavonoids. Sorghum, millet-nut bars were found more acceptable and nutritionally dense compared to multigrain-nut bars. The developed products were found acceptable and shelf stable for four months.
Research Areas
Plant-based Substitutes and Protein Isolates as Dairy Alternatives
The FMCG industry has come up with several milk alternatives due to the rapid interest of health-centric consumers towards plant-based substitutes. As a result of these trends, plant-based substitutes were used to formulate ice cream along with herbal extracts to enhance the flavour of the product. The developed product was supported with an analysis of quality characteristics and shelf life studies and got a beneficial outcome in terms of all attributes.
With the increasing popularity of vegan diets, plant-based protein isolates have been good alternatives over dairy protein isolates due to their comparable amino acid composition, high digestibility factor, and biological value. Considering the raised ergogenic and nutrient requirements of young women athletes, convenient and instant products were formulated utilizing plant-based protein isolates. Nutritional profiling of the developed products was carried out and were found rich in energy, protein, BCAAs, carbohydrates, calcium, and polyphenols when compared to the commercial products. An attempt was made to enhance the products by the addition of specific immune enhancing and healing herbs and flowers. Both products exhibited significant anti-inflammatory properties using in vitro methods.
Food Processing Waste Utilization for Value Addition
Wastes from the fruit and vegetable processing market contain potential byproducts and bioactive components that can be utilized and converted into value added products. An attempt was made to utilize vegetable waste from potato peel, carrot peel, and carrot leaves. Dietary fiber and antioxidants were characterized from the waste and studied for their chemical composition and in vitro biological activities. Crackers and soup mixes were developed utilizing extracted fiber from the vegetable peel and leaf, which were found acceptable and shelf stable for four months.
Potential Role of Macular Carotenoids in Promoting Eye Health
Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the foremost reason for impaired vision in the people aged above 60 years, resulting in the decrement of life quality. Oxidants, including free radicals, are partly responsible for the aging process. Adherence to a diet rich in antioxidants like vitamins A, C, E, and macular carotenoids such as lutein and zeaxanthin decrease the risk of AMD progression. The present study witnessed the formulation and evaluation of foods, incorporating pocket friendly locally available green leafy vegetables rich in lutein and zeaxanthin. Collaboration was done with the Dept. of Ophthalmology at Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (SSSIHMS), Prasanthigram, to identify subjects and impart awareness regarding AMD and the role of xanthophyll rich foods in its management.
Nutritional Biology and Metabolomics Studies for Mitigating Life-Style Disorders
As part of the ongoing doctoral research programme, nutritional biology and metabolomic studies are being carried out on indigenous pigmented rice varieties related to diabetes. Several rice varieties were found to exhibit good inhibitory activity against carbohydrate digesting enzymes, and incretin hormone degrading enzymes, implicated in diabetes. They also inhibited formation of advanced glycated end products, implicated in the aetiology of diabetes. In vivo glycaemic response studies in human volunteers revealed Kattuyanam and Karungkuruvai, two Indian red rice varieties, to exhibit low glycaemic index (GI) compared to the high GI white rice. An untargeted Q-TOF LC-MS analysis identified over hundred phenolic metabolites across ten pigmented rice varieties. Confirmation of antidiabetic activity of the abundant phenolics is being investigated using in silico techniques.
Development of Microgreens-based Health-Functional Culinary Formulations
As part of another ongoing doctoral research programme, metabolomic analysis of a genre of novel food crop, microgreens, revealed a unique phenolic metabolite fingerprint for each of the microgreens with the flavonol class being the most abundant compound. Novel shelf-stable functional culinary products were formulated using these phytochemical rich microgreens. The developed products exhibited good functional and sensory quality with a high score for marketability and good shelf life. This study thus, contributed to expanding the utilization of these tiny short-lived microgreens from the conventional usage as salad greens and garnishes, to their application as interesting culinary ingredients.
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Nutri Bars
