Development and evaluation of functional cookies developed from Amaranthus grain flour supplemented with bee bread

Amaranthus (AMA) is a nutrient-rich, easily-grown underutilized pseudo cereal but has the potential to be a significant weapon in the fight against malnutrition and hunger. In addition, Beebread (BB) is similarly underutilized despite being extremely beneficial to human health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of BB integration (% OF BB), baking temperature (T), and baking time (t) on the functional cookie qualities. Optimum process conditions to produce functional cookies with maximized crude protein content (11.90 %), total antioxidant activity (136.23 µg/mL of IC ₅₀ of DPPH scavenging activity), and overall acceptability of 6.04 (7-point hedonic scale) were found to be 18.89 %, 84.36 ℃, and 12.08 min for % of BB, T, and t respectively. The findings demonstrated that as the percentage of BB in composite flour increased, so did the thickness (11.36 ± 0.08 mm), diameter (46.63 ± 0.21 mm), protein contents (12.03 ± 0.18 %), total antioxidant (IC ₅₀ concentration of DPPH and ABTS scavenging activity 136.62 ± 0.18 and 38.48 ± 0.83 µg/mL, respectively, and the FRAP scavenging of 134.17 ± 3.61 µg AAE/g), total phenolic 90.34 ± 1.56 mg GAE/g and flavonoid 120.55 ± 0.46 mg QE/g, and overall acceptability 6.07 ± 0.04 of the functional cookies. The phytic acid content 423.30 ± 1.66 µg/g of optimized cookies (OPC) was less than that of control cookies (COC). But for tannin 0.148 ± 0.000 mg CE/g and oxalates 0.276 ± 0.023 g/g, OPC had slightly more than that of COC. Even if these values show minimal increment, the antinutritional content in the optimized functional cookies remained at minimum. The improved protein, mineral, antioxidant, phenolics and flavonoid content of the functional cookies can contribute to health advantages in human diets.