Functional foods: a comparison of blueberry muffin ingredients

Abstract

Functional foods have increasingly gained attention regarding their ability to reduce the onset of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. The objectives of this study were the following: 1) to evaluate blueberry muffins for protein, lipid, ash, moisture, and carbohydrate content differences when incorporating traditional ingredients compared to soymilk and flaxseed, and 2) to determine through sensory evaluation if untrained panelists could detect a difference among those blueberry muffins. Four muffins were prepared (control, soymilk, flaxseed, and soymilk/flaxseed) using a blueberry muffin mix. Sensory evaluation was performed by 107 untrained panelists among four different muffin batches. Sensory panelists were asked to rate the appearance, blueberry muffin flavor, sweetness, and the overall impression of each product on a 1 to 5 Hedonic scale rating, using 1 for dislike extremely and 5 for like extremely. Statistical analyses were determined using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at p<0.05. Quantitative measurements indicated that soymilk muffins had a higher moisture (34.0%) and protein (6.42%) content, flaxseed and soymilk muffins had a higher level of ash (1.65%) and lower lipid content of 10.7%. Sensory evaluation concluded that there was no significant difference for the appearance, blueberry muffin flavor, sweetness, or the overall impression among the four different muffin types. Soymilk muffin was rated highest in appearance (3.87) and blueberry muffin flavor (3.51). Compared to the other muffins types, flaxseed muffins were rated highest in moistness (4.02). This study showed that functional foods can be incorporated into traditional food products with no discernable loss in appearance,flavor, or sweetness and the additional soy protein and minerals may assist in the prevention of the onset of chronic diseases