Processing, physico-chemical, sensory and nutritional evaluation of protein, mineral and vitamin enriched peanut chikki - an Indian traditional sweet.

Chikki, a popular Indian traditional sweet snack prepared from peanut was enriched with protein, minerals and vitamins by incorporating soy protein isolate, calcium carbonate, ferrous fumerate, vitamin A and folic acid to meet the growing demand for health foods. The enriched nutra chikki was evaluated for physico-chemical characteristics such as moisture, texture, peroxide value (PV), fatty acid composition in comparison with control peanut chikki. Nutra chikki, which had initial moisture content of 2-3%, did not alter much up to 60 days of storage at 27 °C and 37 °C. PV increased gradually at 27 °C, whereas at 37 °C, it was higher. Hardness of nutra chikki did not change significantly when stored at 27 °C up to 105 days, but at 37 °C a gradual increase in hardness was observed after 45 days. These results of nutra chikki were similar and comparable with those of control chikki. Nutra chikki had 18% protein, 20% fat, 6.42% Ca, 1.7% Fe, 4000 μg vitamin A and 2660 μg folic acid. Protein digestibility corrected amino acid score of nutra chikki was 0.78 whereas that of control chikki was 0.73. The fatty acid composition of control and nutra chikki was same as both contain peanuts as oil source. The formulation and process parameters for preparation of protein, mineral and vitamin enriched peanut chikki, were standardized. The storage stability and quality parameters of enriched chikki were comparable with those of control chikki.