Standardization and Nutritional Evaluation of Minor Millet Based Instant Upma Mixes

Traditional dry mix Indian foods are very popular worldwide. Upma is one of the famous breakfast foods of the southern India, is usually prepared from wheat semolina. Minor millets are a group of underutilised cereal crop with high nutritional and phytonutrient properties. The present investigation examined the quality of four minor millets, proso, barnyard, little and kodo millets for developing ready-to-cook instant upma mixes using soaking-drying, autoclaving-drying and roasting methods. The best method for processing millets into instant upma mixes was determined by the sensory quality of the product.  Based on the sensory evolution, roasted minor millet based instant upma mixes were selected for the further study. The nutritional quality of developed instant upma mixes showed that they were good source of protein (6.26-10.68%), ash (3.37-4.27%), iron (7.32-11.28mg/100g), zinc (3.65-5.73mg/100g) and phytonutrients like phenols (1.98-6.07mg GAE/100g) and tannins (0.45-0.58mg TAE/100g). Results show that instant upma mixes can be stored for up to 90 days at ambient conditions in LDPE pouches without spoilage.