Abstract:
Before consumption and for development of millet based food products, millet grains are usually processed by some traditional processing methods to improve their nutritional, organoleptic and edible characteristics. The processing techniques aim to increase the nutritional content and improve the sensory properties of proso millet flour. Thus, an attempt was made in the present research with an objective to study the effect of soaking, germination, roasting and grinding on nutritional and organoleptic characteristics of proso millet flour. Nutritional composition of both unprocessed and processed proso millet flour were analysed by using standard methods given by AOAC, 2000 while organoleptic characteristics were analyzed by using a nine-point hedonic scale. With respect to the nutritional assessment, this study revealed a significant (p<0.05) increase in ash, crude fiber, crude protein, iron, and zinc content while a significant decrease in moisture, fat, carbohydrate, energy, calcium and phosphorus with the progress in the germinating period. Both the nutritional and organoleptic assessment showed that the grains which were germinated for 72hrs were superior among all other processed proso millet flour.