Physicochemical, nutritional, and sensory properties of tortillas prepared from nixtamalized quality protein maize enriched with soybean

Abstract

Quality protein maize (QPM) blended with soybean flour in developing countries calls for investigations of new adoptable maize-based food varieties to tackle malnutrition. This study aimed to optimize the formulation of nixtamalized QPM (NQPM) tortillas enriched with soybean flour in terms of physicochemical, nutritional, and sensory properties. Mixture, D-optimal design was used to obtain and analyze the different formulations of the NQPM with soybean flour. The results showed that the incorporation of soybean flour in NQPM significantly (P<0.05) affected most of the evaluated parameters. Parameters of the resulting tortilla evaluated were puffing, rollability, firmness, pH, protein, fat, fiber, ash, carbohydrate, energy, calcium, iron, zinc, appearance, aroma, taste, texture, and overall acceptability. Numerical optimization showed that improved physicochemical, nutritional, and sensory properties were obtained at 75.5% NQPM blended with 25.5% soybean flour. The method optimization was within the acceptable range of desirability (0.75). The study may provide useful implications for maize-based food products that could alleviate malnutrition when blended with other products.