Quality Evaluation of Fortified Oatmeal Cookies with Banana Pulp and Honey

Abstract

This study evaluated the quality of oatmeal cookies fortified with banana pulp and honey. The proximate composition, physical properties, mineral composition and sensory properties were determined using standard analytical methods. The proximate composition revealed that moisture, fat and crude protein values decreased significantly (p<0.05) from samples A to E. Moisture content decreased from 9.18 to 7.18%, fat decreased from 3.26 to 2.45% while crude protein decreased from 19.47 to 17.44%. However, ash, crude fibre and carbohydrate increased from 0.26 to 1.18%; 5.54 to 6.72 % and 62.30 to 65.0% respectively. Results of physical properties of oatmeal cookies showed that cookies diameter ranged from 5.25 to 5.48cm, thickness ranged from 0.48 to 0.53cm, spread ratio ranged from 10.17 to 11.50 and weight increased non significantly (p>0.05) from 9.33 to 11.30g. Results of mineral composition revealed that all the minerals evaluated  (calcium, iron, potassium and sodium) increased progressively from sample A to E with sample E having the highest values of 3.87mg/100g for calcium, 310mg/100g for potassium and 113.6mg/100g for sodium, while iron peaked in sample D (0.480mg/100g). Sensory properties revealed that all the oatmeal cookies samples were generally well accepted with mean scores above 7.5 on a 9-point hedonic scale across all attributes.