Redesigning Traditional Grains: A Functional Approach to Protein Quality Using Kodo Millet and Chickpeas

Deeksha RanaDr Renuka AggarwalHarpreet KaurAditi Sewak^*Kiran BainsInderpreet Dhaliwal

• Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India

Diversifying staple diets with nutritionally dense crops like millets offers a viable strategy to combat hidden hunger and undernutrition. Studies suggest that including coarse cereals like millets can compensate for amino acid deficiencies. Kodo millet is rich in essential amino acids such as lysine, threonine, valine, and sulphur-containing amino acids, with a leucine-to-isoleucine ratio of approximately 2.0. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out to formulate and nutritionally evaluate millet-pulse-based food products by replacing traditional cereal. Food products namely 'crispy crunch' and 'nutrimilletvita' were formulated using Kodo millet (IPS 178), wheat (PBW 826), rice (PR 131), and chickpea in different proportions. For 'crispy crunch,' the ingredients were supplemented in the ratio of 40:25:35 percent, while 'nutrimilletvita' was prepared with 50 percent supplementation each of Kodo millet and chickpea.Kodo millet (IPS 178), wheat (PBW 826) rice (PR 131), and chickpea were supplemented in the ratio of 40, 25, and 35 percent to formulate food products namely, 'crispy crunch' and 'nutrimilletvita' which was prepared by 50 percent supplementation of each Kodo millet and chickpea. The developed food products were tested for their acceptability and nutritional composition against the traditional cereal. The overall acceptability of formulated crispy crunch and nutrimilletvita was 7.54 and 7.80, respectively which was comparable with the wheat-and/r rice-based product and wheat based product, resectively. These products had a substantial amount of protein (10.01-18.31 g/100g) and lysine (3.96-4.06 g/100 g) with considerable in-vitro protein digestibility (73.7-78.3%) and protein digestibility amino acid score (0.39-0.45). The products when stored for 3 months were found to be organoleptically acceptable till 45 days. The developed products were cost-effective and nutritionally superior when compared with their traditional and market counterparts. The study concluded that consumption of one serving of developed kodo millet chickpea-based products met 22 to 41% of Recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein and more than 10046.1 to 79.5% of the lysine requirements of school-going children (7-12 years). Hence, the developed Kodo millet-chickpea combination can be effectively used as a replacement for wheat/rice for preparing various food products with good quality protein.