Compositional and shelf-life analysis of developed instant Indian recipe chilla mix from hull-less barley: A convenience food product

Barley has a rich nutritional and therapeutic profile. In an era of life-style based silent pandemics, the need to bring on table the convenient food products with sensory and nutritional acceptability is necessary. Hence, the present study aimed to develop an instant chilla mix from a novel hull-less variety of barley (Hordeum vulgare) (PL891). Various random combinations of compo-site flour (barley flour (BF), rice flour (RF) and gram flour (GF)) were prepared namely T₁ (100:00:00), T₂ (70:15:15), T₃ (60:30:10), T₄ (33:33:33), and T₅ (00:00:100). Other ingredients such as onion, tomato, ginger, garlic, coriander, and chilli were also added. Nutritional and sensory parameters at fresh, three, six and nine month of storage interval were also analyzed. The assessed parameters (%) were reported as moisture (6.91±0.02 to 10.21±0.09), ash (2.11±0.05 to 3.10±0.02), protein (7.59±0.05 to 24.50±0.06), fat (1.50±0.02 to 6.10±0.04), crude fiber (1.08±0.02 to 2.87±0.02), and total carbohydrates (58.21±0.10 to 75.27±0.07). All the blends varied significantly (p≥0.05) during storage in terms of moisture, protein, fat, crude fiber, and carbohydrates, while a non-significant difference was noted in ash for all the treatments. Blending also affected the nutrient content of all the treatments significantly (P ≤ 0.05) depending upon the ratio of blending and composition of various ingredients in the product. The sensory attributes indicated that T₂ blend with 70% PL891 hull-less barley flour was most ac-ceptable. The developed product will be a nutritious substitute for chapati as barley is rich in numerous nutrients and have therapeutic potentials.