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Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) is the second-most widely planted species of millet. It is nutritionally superior to conventional food grains and exhibits hypoglycaemic effect due to presence of higher proportion of unavailable complex carbohydrate and resistant starch. Vermicelli is a popular instant food product which is tasty and easy to make, liked by people of all walks of life, irrespective of age and changing lifestyles. Hence, an attempt was made to develop foxtail millet based value added vermicelli. Standardization trials indicated that acceptable foxtail millet vermicelli could be developed by substituting 50 per cent processed foxtail millet flour in the standard vermicelli recipe. In order to improve functional properties of vermicelli further different trials were carried out by replacing wheat semolina with black gram dhal flour. Black gram dal flour was incorporated at 5, 10, 15 and 20 per cent levels by substituting wheat semolina while level of foxtail millet flour was kept constant at 50 percent. Among all the trials, vermicelli with 20 percent black gram dhal flour was found to be highly acceptable. To improve nutritional quality of developed vermicelli an attempt was made to incorporate fenugreek seed powder at level of 1, 2 and 3 percent, among which vermicelli from 1 percent fenugreek seed powder was found to be acceptable as compared to other samples. Cooking, textural and sensory properties of formulated vermicelli were observed and compared with the control. Thus, the study presented an upshot of potentials of foxtail millet as a natural designer health food for patients suffering with life style diseases.
Keywords: vermicelli, foxtail millet, black gram dal, fenugreek seed