Standardization and Evaluation of Cauliflower Stalks Incorporated Phulkas

Lot of attention is focused on the development of value-added foods that promote wellbeing and improve health due to increased awareness among consumers, rapid urbanization and globalization. Many by-products may be useful as source of nutrients and potential functional ingredients to obtain added value products for combating hidden hunger.

Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea) has highest waste index with maximum ratio of non-edible to edible portion after harvesting. Unfortunately, cauliflower waste in developing countries like India does not find any significant use despite containing appreciable amounts of proteins, minerals, vitamins, dietary fibre and natural antioxidants like carotenoids, phenolic compounds, glycosylates and flavonoids. Thus, it can be a novel ingredient for production of value-added foods.

The cauliflower stalks powder was incorporated to phulkas at 5, 10 and 15% respectively and evaluated by semi trained panellists using 5-point hedonic scale for colour, flavour, texture, taste and overall acceptability. The phulkas with 10% incorporation was most accepted one. The most accepted phulkas was screened for phytochemical constituents and analysed for physical parameters. The results showed that the cauliflower stalks incorporated phulkas contained phytochemicals like carbohydrates, alkaloids, protein, flavonoids, phenols, amino acids, cardiac glycosides, steroids, saponins and tannins. The physical parameters included foaming properties, swelling capacity, gelatinization temperature which were higher for cauliflower stalks incorporated phulkas whereas water uptake analysis, cooking time, retrogradation was lower in comparison to control phulkas.