Volume 2 • Issue 1 • 1000124 J Nutr Food Sci ISSN: 2155-9600 JNFS, an open access journal Open Access Research Article Yaseen et al., J Nutr Food Sci 2012, 2:1 DOI: 10.4172/2155-9600.1000124 *Corresponding author: Tehseen Yaseen, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ferozpur Road, Lahore-54600, Pakistan, E-mail: zoni_leo@yahoo.com Received December 01, 2011; Accepted February 09, 2012; Published February 14, 2012 Citation: Yaseen T, Rehman SU, Ashraf I, Ali S, Pasha I (2012) Development and Nutritional Evaluation of Date Bran Muffns. J Nutr Food Sci 2:124. doi:10.4172/2155-9600.1000124 Copyright: © 2012 Yaseen T, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Development and Nutritional Evaluation of Date Bran Muffins Tehseen Yaseen 1,2 *, Salim-ur-Rehman 1 , Iram Ashraf 1 , Sakhawat Ali 2 and Imran Pasha 1 1 National Institute of Food Science and Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 2 Pakistan Council of Scientifc and Industrial Research, Lahore-54600, Pakistan Abstract Background: Dates, because of their rich nutritional value can be used to develop muffns as value added product with partial replacement of sucrose with date syrup. The objective of this study was to develop high fber containing product utilizing date syrup and wheat bran as recommended level of fber is low in our diets. Method: 7 treatments of date bran muffns for varying concentration of date syrup i.e. 30, 40 and 50% were used with varying amount of wheat bran from 2.5 to 5% by keeping other ingredients constant. These muffns were analyzed for shelf life stability at ambient storage condition for 4 days. Nutritional analysis (moisture, ash, fat, protein, fber and carbohydrate) was done along with mineral and sensory evaluation. Results and Conclusions: Sensory evaluation revealed that T 5 (2.5% wheat bran + 50% Date syrup) was best among all treatments. The sensory score of muffns was reduced with the passage of time. Date bran muffns contained 30.3-31.3% moisture, 0.96-1.61% ash, 26.7-27.4% crude fat, 1.3-5.6% crude fber, 11.4-13% crude protein and 93-20.9% carbohydrate. Increasing concentrations of date syrup in date muffns caused an increasing level of protein, fber, higher softness and more color development while calorifc value decreased by increasing the amount of date syrup. Keywords: Date; Wheat bran; Mufns; Plant sources Introduction Proper use of fber in diet is an essential requirement for maintaining good health. It helps in reduction of blood insulin and postprandial glucose. Lack of its intake in diet leads to constipation, diverticulation, cardiovascular diseases and cancer [1]. Generally dietary fber having high functional properties acting as non-caloric bulking agents, increase water holding and retaining capacities and also enhances oxidation stability. Dietary fbers positively afect structural and physical properties of food, sensory characteristics, texture and shelf-life of product [2]. Soluble dietary fber is naturally available in food such as fruits, vegetable and can have potential application on dietary fber supplements [3]. Addition of peach fber in mufn batter can produce a product with good sensory properties. However, addition of oat and maize dietary fbers in gluten free commodities resulted in higher crumb sofness, loaf volume and overall acceptability than non fber gluten free bread [4]. Dates are rich in natural anti-oxidants (i.e. favonoids, anthocyanins and phenolic acids) that have the ability to avoid many health problems therefore, used frequently in many neutraceutical food formulations [5,6]. Breads containing the date seeds had higher dietary fber than wheat bran [1]. In Pakistan, like other countries intake of dietary fber is not up to the standard and this problem further afected by poorly developed status of food industry especially baking one. As a result of this children have a limited option and remain dependant on snack food that is poor in vital nutrients, hence having poor health and malnutrition [7]. Te increases in dietary fber content can be enhanced by utilization of fruits in bakery products like mufns especially containing mixed fbers. Te use of oat bran mufns considerably increases absorption of minerals [8]. Addition of peanuts, cottonseed and soybean fours in mufns increase protein and dietary of mufns without negatively afecting sensory quality [9]. Considering this current scenario and easily availability of dates in Pakistan, as it is the 7 th largest producer of good dates in the world [10], an efort was put in to enhance the nutritional value of mufns by increasing their dietary fber by utilization of dates syrup and wheat bran. Te current study will focus on development of date bran mufns. Te efect of storage on quality and sensory evaluation of these mufns will also be carried out. Materials and Methods Diferent ingredients such as wheat bran, wheat four, dates, sucrose (sugar), baking powder, salt, oil, eggs were obtained from local market of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Preparation of date syrup Dates were washed and de-pitted. Flesh of dates was boiled with water for 10 minutes to obtain slurry which was blended for 5 minutes and then fltered by using a cloth. Te residual pulp was rewashed with adequate amount of hot water then fltered again. Raw juice was centrifuged for 5 minutes at 10,000rpm, followed by concentration using rotary evaporator at 75ºC until one third of the total extract volume lef. Afer it syrup was cooked up to 70º brix, flled in sterilized glass bottles and used in mufns recipe at diferent concentrations [11]. Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences J o u r n a l o f N u t r i t i o n & Fo o d S c i e n c e s ISSN: 2155-9600