Evaluation of Techno Functional, Nutritional and Storage Stability of Wheat Based Crackers Incorporated with Brown Rice Flour and Carboxymethyl Cellulose

A study was conducted at Division of Post-Harvest Technology; SKUAST-Kashmir to develop wheat based crackers incorporated with brown rice flour. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to study the effect of brown rice flour, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and shortening on quality characteristics of crackers. Central composite rotatable design (CCRD) with brown rice flour (10-40%), CMC (1-3%) and shortening (5-12%) as independent variables produced twenty different combinations that were used to investigate the effect of these variables on product responses viz spread ratio, volume index, density, thickness, width and puffiness. The independent responses- Brown rice flour, CMC and shortening significantly (p ≤ 0.05) affected the product responses. Brown rice flour incorporation had pronounced effect on quality parameters than shortening and CMC. Optimized processing parameters for the preparation of product was brown rice flour (10%), CMC (1.810%) and shortening (5%). Storage studies of the final product revealed that the shelf-life stability of brown rice flour incorporated crackers was maintained up to 3 months in cellophane bags under ambient storage conditions. However, a gradual increase in free fatty acid concentration and decrease in hardness of crackers was reported over a period of 90 days of storage.