Junk food no more: rice crackers fortified with indigenous vegetables
2011
Manaois, R.V. | Abilgos-Ramos, R. | Morales, A.V. | Tibayan, P.A., Philippine Rice Research Inst., Maligaya, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija (Philippines). Rice Chemistry and Food Science Div.
Rice crackers are consumed by almost all age groups, but are not a significant source of nutrients. Indigenous vegetables, such as malunggay and squash, were thus explored as natural additives to rice cracker to improve its nutrient profile and maximize the use of local crops. Rice crackers were prepared on-site at the Palusapis Fish Crackers processing plant, Barangay [village] Palusapis, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. Non-glutinous rice NSIC Rc130 was wet-milled, blended with other cracker ingredients, and added with powdered forms of malunggay leaves and squash fruit at 0.5% (wt/wt of rice) level. Nutritional analysis showed that malunggay (MRC) and squash-fortified rice crackers (SRC) had improved iron levels by 304.4% and 142.8%, respectively. The vegetables additionally fortified the crackers with beta-carotene at 3.80 plus-minus 0.20 ug/g and 1.83 plus-minus ug/g for MRC and SRC, respectively. Both fortified crackers also had lower crude fat content, while MRC had a dietary fiber content which was 76.6% higher than the unfortified sample. All samples had water activity of less than 0.400 and no coliform was detected. Sensory evaluation by 40 adult consumers (aged 18 years and above, 21 females and 19 males) revealed 100% acceptability and willingness to purchase SRC if it is available in the market, and 87.5% for MRC. These results demonstrated the viability of producing healthier rice crackers using indigenous vegetables and established their marketability.
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