Flour premix of copra meal 15% with germinated foxtail millet 85% blended with amaranth in 60:40 proportions to get gluten free, calorie deficient composite mix for biscuits. Attempts were made for obese and diabetics as target population with maltodextrin and acesulfame‐k to find the extent of possible partial replacement of bakery fat and table sugar, respectively. It was found that substitution feasibility to 48% fat and 47% sugar lie within the acceptable limits of physical and sensorial properties comparable to control sample. Successful calorie reduction in fat and binary (fat and sugar) amended biscuits were achieved to 364.58 kcal/g and 315.97 kcal/g, respectively, as in comparison with control (471.01 kcal/g). Low anti‐nutrients (phytate and tannin) and increased polyphenols in biscuits is a function of germinated foxtail millet. Acrylamide development also restricted to 0.193 µg/g in sugar replaced and 0.32 µg/g in sugar and fat replaced biscuits comparable to control (0.5 µg/g).
Practical applications
Copra as by‐product from coconut industry is rich in fiber and protein but still restricted to as livestock feed till date. Its utilization for human is itself a novel approach. Standardized inclusion of copra meal to selected nutritious gluten free grains reveals a healthy budgetary option. Further, intentional substitution of dense calorie compounds (fat and sugar) with their calorie deficit counterpart to target obese and diabetic along with celiac is investigated. Owe to protein richness of selected coarse cereal varieties and copra, huge malnourished population may easily access pseudo cereal and coarse cereal based composite food with enhanced health attributes.