Nutritional, microstructural, rheological and quality characteristics of biscuits using processed wheat germ

Abstract

Stabilizing wheat germ by defatting increased the protein content to 38% and also increased the soluble fiber from 2.07 to 3.01% and insoluble fiber increased from 14.4 to 24.49%, whereas steaming was highly effective in completely inactivating the lipase activity and most of the lipoxygenase activity. Addition of defatted germ had more weakening effects on the rheological characteristics of the dough than the steamed germ. Biscuits with higher protein and dietary fiber content could be prepared by replacing wheat flour with either steamed or defatted wheat germ at a 40% level.

Keywords::

• Wheat germ
• rheological characteristics
• vitamin E
• dietary fiber
• biscuit

Acknowledgements

The authors are greatly thankful to Mr Lokesh and Mr Anbalagan, Central Instruments Facility and Services, CFTRI, Mysore, for their help in carrying out texture profile analysis of the biscuit dough and scanning electron microscopy studies respectively. The authors are also thankful to Mr Richard Joseph for his help in carrying out the vitamin E analysis.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.