Technology elaboration of biscuits with reduced sugar content

The problem formulation. The domestic market of Ukraine presents a wide range of flour confectionery products manufactured in restaurant industry establishments and craft confectionery production facilities. The current trend of this market is the search for alternative technological solutions, in particular, the technologies development of flour confectionery products with increased nutritional value, that can directly affect metabolic processes and stimulate protective body functions. This raises the necessity of available domestic food raw materials, which are a natural source of biologically active substances, and can have a positive effect on the human body.

Biscuits are one of the most common and popular flour confectionery products. Until now, a significant share (about 2 thousand tons) of the biscuit market is delivered from abroad (Pro-consulting, 2019). Biscuit products are characterised by high taste qualities, still, they contain a large number of simple carbohydrates and fats, and scantily biologically active substances. Therefore, it is important to enrich biscuit products with ingredients that hold dietary fiber, vitamins, macroand micronutrients, and have a low content of simple carbohydrates.

At present, it is urgent to look for alternative types of domestic and imported raw materials, that are a natural source of biologically active substances, and can have a positive effect on the human body. Domestic raw materials include “Zdorovia” flour, which is made from grain germinated in sea salt aqua, containing a wide range of macroand micronutrients, including organic iodine. In comparison with this, imported raw materials consist of carob powder which substitutes cocoa flour. It is produced from carob pods, that allows to reduce the sugar amount and the glycemic index of finished products.

The main part of “Zdorovia” flour is starch. Monoand disaccharides are contained in it in negligible quantities. Thus, compared to wheat flour, the starch content is lower by 21,3 %, and the fiber content is higher by 314,3 %. It is determined that the protein content of “Zdorovia” flour increases. Thus, in wheat flour the protein content is 10,6 g, and in “Zdorovia” flour it is 12,3 g, which is 16,5 % more. In grain, fats are contained in the aleurone layer and fetus, so, considering the yield of “Zdorovia” flour, its fats content is 46,1 % higher than wheat flour one.

The mineral and vitamin composition of “Zdorovia” flour also improved: the potassium content increased by 97,7 %; magnesium - by 263,6 %; iron - by 152,8 %. The iodine content was determined as 32 mcg. The thiamine content in “Zdorovia” flour increased by 322,2 % comparatively to wheat flour, and vitamin B3 - by 4,4 times (Kryvoruchko, 2014). Based on the analysis of “Zdorovia” flour chemical composition, it is determined that the content of essential nutrients in this flour is higher than in wheat one.

Cocoa powder is one of the herbal ingredients in biscuit recipes. According to the decree “On requirements approval for cocoa and chocolate products”, “cocoa powder/ cocoa is a food product obtained by grinding roasted and cleaned from the hard shell (cocoa vela) cocoa beans into powder, containing a mass fraction of cocoa butter not less than 20%, and in terms of dry matter and moisture mass fraction, not more than 9%” (Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Provision of Ukraine, 2016). Powder under the trademark “carob” can be considered a promising substitute for cocoa one, since the latter is three times more expensive than carob powder (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2013). According to analysed patent and literature sources, carob powder has not been studied in biscuit production technology (Poliakov et al., 2004; Buialska et al., 2018; Horodyska, 2018).

The technology elaboration of biscuit products with flour of germinated wheat grain and carob powder requires the study of their technological properties, as well as reasoning of rational concentration and impact on the biscuits quality.

The state of the problem in research

Domestic and foreign scientists' works are devoted to the elaboration of innovative technologies of flour confectionery products with increased nutritional value and low sugar composition, including biscuit dough: A. M.Dorokhovych, V. V. Dorokhovych, M. F. Kravchenko, M. I. Nazar, O. V. Samokhvalova, N.I. Cherevychna, A. M. Chuiko, O. H. Shydakova-Kameniuk.

Unresolved issues

Due to the growing interest of consumers in flour confectionery, including biscuit dough, the creation of innovative technologies for biscuit products is important. The presence of a high content of high-grade wheat flour, sugar and eggs in biscuits has a negative impact on human health, resulting in diseases such as obesity, diabetes etc.

The use of raw materials with low sugar content and high nutritional value in biscuit products technology is an important objective, which can be solved by analysing the domestic market of biscuit products and ways of increasing their nutritional value, grounding the use possibility of “Zdorovia” flour and carob powder in flour mixtures, elaborating the technology of biscuit products with high nutritional value and low sugar content.

Aim and methods of research

Source: elaborated by the author on the basis of works (Skurikhin & Tutelian, 2002; Santos et al., 2005)

The results of Table 3 show that the main monoand disaccharides are sucrose, glucose and fructose, the content of which is 35/3,3/11 times higher in carob powder than in cocoa one.

The analysis of monoand disaccharides content in carob powder indicates the energy value and possibility of reducing the sugar amount in biscuit products recipes.

In the technology of biscuit production, sugar plays the role of a structure creator, but it has a high caloric content. Sugar is rapidly absorbed from the small intestine and causes a sharp rise of glucose level in blood, thereby, accelerating the glycemic response. For quantitative assessment of certain carbohydrates ability in the product content to cause a glycemic reaction, the concept of “glycemic index” is introduced (Dorokhovych & Kovbasa, 2015; Karpenko et al., 2019). The glycemic index is an indicator of food products effect on sugar level in blood, which shows how quickly glucose enters the bloodstream due to digestive processes (Polumbryk, 2011).

Simple carbohydrates differ from each other in the “sweetness index” - a comparative dimension that shows how many times less, compared to sucrose, a sweetener should be taken in order to prepare some substance equivalent in sweetness to 9% sucrose solution, and is determined by organoleptic method. Herewith, the sweetness is taken as 1. In such a case, the sweetness index of sucrose is 1,0; glucose - 0,7; fructose - 1,5; lactose - 0,3. According to organoleptic parameters (powder taste), the sweetness index of carob powder is 0,5 (Romanovska, 2021). However, carob powder is not considered to be a substitute for sugar, as it belongs to the food ingredient, and can be used as a stand-alone food product (Dorokhovych & Gulich, 2007).

Carob powder also contains a wide range of macroand microelements (Table 4).

Table 4

Elemental composition of cocoa and carob powders (per 100 g)