Value added products from quality protein maize: An opportunity to generate rural employment

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays) is a major cereal crop for human nutrition worldwide with its high content of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, some of the important vitamins and minerals. Maize acquired a well deserved reputation as a poor man’s nutra- cereal. However, maize has an inbuilt drawback of being deficient in two essential amino acids. Conventional breeding efforts have yielded several modern maize varieties referred as Quality protein maize (QPM). The present study was undertaken to develop nutritious recipes based on QPM maize as flour and suji (semolina) by supplementing with pulses. Quality protein maize (QPM) was substituted with different proportions in traditional foods (Idli, Dosa, Pittu and Adai), convenience foods (Papad and Noodles), bakery foods (Cookies and Bread) and snack foods (Vada and pakoda) which were organoleptically evaluated using nine point hedonic scale and also estimated the nutrient composition of the products. Results of sensory evaluation showed the overall acceptability of the products prepared from HQPM 7 maize variety compared to the conventional variety of CO1. The nutrients composition also higher in the HQPM 7 maize based products compared to CO 1 maize based products. The maize based products created new avenue to formulate ready to eat and ready cook products from maize with sufficient nutrients for women entrepreneurship.