Abstract
The current work assesses the potential of incorporating spinach leaves (SL) and sugar beet powder (SBP) as functional ingredients at 5% in preparing nutrients dense noodles. The chemical composition, antioxidants activity, total phenolic contents (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) cooking quality and acceptability by a consumer sensory panel (n = 10) were evaluated. Results showed that noodles formulated with SL and SBP exhibited significant increase in moisture, ash crude fiber and minerals in correlation to the control. Meanwhile, minor change was observed in fat and protein content compared with control noodle. Results revealed that SL and SBP noodles were significantly superior in antioxidants activity than those of the control noodle (p < 0.05). SL-noodles exhibited the highest total phenolic content (381.66) mg Galic acid /100g, whereas SBP-noodles showed the highest antioxidants activity (18.20%) as well as the highest total flavonoid content was46.19) mg Rutin/100 g. Incorporation of SL and SBP modified the functional quality of noodles i.e. cooking time, cooking loss, water absorption, swelling index and noodles' color. SBP-noodles cooking quality showed increased cooking time as well as water uptake. Greenness as well as redness increased significantly for SL and SBP noodles respectively. The sensory studies recommended the incorporation of SL and SBP to the noodles to attain desired sensory quality without affecting the overall acceptability compared with control noodles. SL and SBP-noodles could therefore be used to produce high-quality noodles with nutritional-promoting properties