Studies on the quality of fried snacks based on blends of wheat flour and soya flour

Wheat flour and defatted soya flour blended in the ratio of 65:20, 60:25, 55:30 and 45:40 were studied in respect of dough characteristics and quality of fried savoury and sweet snacks prepared from them. Farinograph characteristics of flour blends showed that as the proportion of soya flour increased there was a slight increase in water absorption and decrease in dough stability. In fried savoury snacks the protein content increased gradually from 20.75 to 27.50%. When the proportion of soya flour was raised from 20 to 40% in the blend, the corresponding rise in protein content in fried sweet snack was from 15.75 to 21.75%. The products were subjected to sensory evaluation by adopting preference ranking test and analyzing the data using Friedman's test and Wilcoxon Mann–Whitney U Test. No significant difference (P⩽0.05) was found among the samples for overall acceptability. In sweet snack, irrespective of levels of soya flour significant difference was not found (P⩽0.05) for all the attributes namely color and appearance, texture, aroma and taste. Color values expressed as L¹, a¹, b¹ showed that development of color during deep fat frying of snacks was not markedly affected by the levels of soya flour. Hardness of fried snacks was measured as force required for 50% compression. Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) of the texture values showed a significant increase in hardness (P⩽0.05) with the level of soya flour.