Influence of Poaceae flours on the empirical rheology, processing, quality characteristics of pizza base and digestibility studies

Abstract

SummaryThe study focused on utilising the flours of the Poaceae family to replace whole wheat flour (WWF) in pizza. The millet blend (MB) was prepared using finger millet and pearl millet flours and mixed in a 1:1 ratio. The WWF was replaced with MB at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% levels and studied its effect on empirical rheology, technical aspects of processing, micro‐structural and nutritional characteristics of pizza base (PB). The incorporation of MB to WWF significantly diminished the water absorption capacity (80–40%) and increased the dough development time (4.27–14.37 min) and stability (2.35–11.07). Starch pasting studies indicated that with the incorporation of MB, the gelatinization temperature increased (63.6–76.3 °C), and all the other viscosity parameters decreased with the incorporation of MB. Texture profile studies showed that the hardness of the PB increased and lost visco‐elastic properties due to the presence of MB. The sensory score indicated that up to 50% incorporation of MB was acceptable, with a 7.5 (MBPB) score. The protein matrix was disrupted, and starch granules leached out due to MB addition. The results of nutritional studies revealed a significant increase in ash (2.01–2.73%), dietary fibre (9.40–11.19), protein (4.96–6.88%) and in‐vitro protein digestibility (41.77–49.80), and decrease in in‐vitro starch digestibility (28.41–17.97%) and estimated glycemic index (59–56) values in MBPB indicating the benefits of utilising millet flours in the new generation foods such as pizza bases for diversification.