Healthy school nutrition buns are formulated to combat nutritional problems such as anemia and osteoporosis. Variations of school buns have been suggested to include lentil flour, chickpea flour and sweet potato flour in proportions of 5%, 10%, and 15% (either individually or in combination) to wheat flour, extracting rate of 72%, with the addition of date syrup in order to raise the levels of proteins, fibers, iron, calcium, and some other minerals in the resulting buns. The produced buns were chemically, physically and Rheological analyzed and sensory evaluations were carried out.
The results indicated that buns prepared with lentil model were higher in protein and fiber than buns prepared from chickpea and sweet potato models. Buns prepared with chickpea flour model were higher in fat than buns prepared with lentil and sweet potato flour models. Meanwhile, ash content values ranged from 1% to 1.3% for the three group models, compared to 1 % for control.
Regarding flour blended models, it could be noticed that combination between lentil and chickpea flours lead to increasing protein content compared with individual lentil or chickpea flour models. With respect to minerals, there are no noticeable differences in calcium levels between model samples of lentils, chickpeas, and sweet potatoes. But as for iron and zinc, all samples recorded percentages greater than the control sample.
The sensory characteristics of the buns samples showed that the best treatments were when sweet potato flour was added, followed by chickpea flour samples, then lentil flour model.