Physicochemical, amino acid profile and sensory qualities of biscuit produced from a blend of wheat and velvet bean () flour.

This study investigated the amino acid, physicochemical and sensory qualities of biscuit made from composite flours of wheat and velvet bean. The incorporation of velvet bean flour significantly increased (p < 0.05) the moisture (1.68-3.09%), ash (0.80-1.80%), crude fibre (1.05-1.40%), protein (6.23-8.10%) and fat (21.17-22.29%) while the carbohydrate content of the biscuits decreased significantly (68.74-63.60%). There were significant differences (p < 0.05) in weight, height and thickness of samples except for break strength. Methionine and lysine decreased significantly (p < 0.05) with the increasing substitution of the velvet bean flour. The biscuit samples containing 95:5 wheat-velvet bean seed flour (TAW) had the highest amino acid content for methionine (4.68 mg/100 g) and lysine (6.69 mg/100 g). The sensory evaluation showed that incorporation of velvet bean flour significantly decreased the sensory quality of the biscuit. Apart from the biscuit with 100% wheat (MAW), the biscuit containing 95:5; wheat: velvet bean flour (TAW) was the most liked with a score of 8.00. This study has shown that velvet bean flour incorporation in wheat flour can improve the nutritional quality of biscuits but negatively affect the sensory attributes. This research indicates that up to 25% inclusion of velvet bean is possible in producing biscuits with comparable sensory qualities to regular biscuits made with 100% wheat.