Physicochemical Properties and Acceptability of Gluten-Free Biscuits as Affected by some Cereals and Tubers Type

 In recent years, there has been an increase in demand of gluten–free products that are suitable for people with coeliac disease.The coeliac disease occurs when the body’s natural defense system reacts to gluten, a wheat protein by attacking the lining of the small intestine.There is no medication of this disease instead of using gluten–free food. Moreover, coeliac patients use foods with low fiber with poor quality, hence generally face the problems of constipation and malnutrition. The current study aimed to produce gluten–free biscuits from cereals flour alone or composite with tubers flour to use it in coeliac disease cases nutrition. Gluten free–biscuits developed with rice (RF), quinoa (QF), amaranth (AF), soybean (SF), taro (TF), sweet potato (SPF) and potato (PF) flours using standard method. Nineteen experimental variants (aglutenics biscuits) were obtained by varying the proportion of flours. The biscuits produced were subjected to proximate composition, physical and sensory evaluations using standard methods. Results showed that biscuits produced with rice, quinoa, amaranth, and composite flours had low moisture content (<5%) and protein up to 10.67%, crude fat (18.48-22.61%), ash (0.51-2.35%), crude fiber (0.23-2.64%), total carbohydrates (65.03-73.60%) as well as energy value (480-504 Kcal/100g) according to the blend ingredients. Sensory evaluation showed that biscuits produced from rice (100%), rice: quinoa: amaranth (40:30:30), and rice: amaranth (50:50) are the most acceptable biscuits in terms of taste, color, crispness, appearance and consumer preference acceptability which differs significantly (p≤0.05) from all the biscuit produced from rest blends. Therefore, it can be concluded that aglutenics biscuits, rice 100%, Developed with RF 50 %: QF 50%, RF 40%: QF 30%: AF 30% and RF 50%: AF 50% are more suitable for consumption.