Proceeding of the 2 nd International Conference on Agriculture and Forestry, Vol. 1, 2015, pp. 19-27 Copyright © TIIKM ISSN: 2362 – 1036 online DOI: 10.17501/icoaf2015-1103 International Conference on Agriculture and Forestry, 10-12 June 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka PRODUCTION, QUALITY ASSESSMENT AND SHELF LIFE EVALUATION OF PROTEIN – RICH BISCUITS MADE FROM BLENDS OF WHEAT AND DEFATTED COCONUT FLOURS N.Sujirtha 1 and T.Mahendran 2 1, 2 Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Eastern University, Sri Lanka. Abstract Defatted coconut flour obtained from the whitish kernel residue left after the extraction of virgin coconut oil has potential application in high protein-fiber enriched food products. Therefore, a study was conducted to utilize coconut flour, a by-product of the Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) industry for the partial substitution of wheat flour. In this study, wheat flour was substituted with defatted coconut flour in varying proportions of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% w/w to prepare a series of blends for biscuit and the possibility of using coconut flour for the production of biscuits was investigate. Prepared biscuits were subjected to nutritional, physical, textural and organoleptic analysis to evaluate the suitability of biscuits for consumption. Nutritional analysis of coconut flour revealed that it contains 12.6% protein, 13.0% fiber, 9.2% fat, 13.7% sugar, 8.2% ash and 4.2% moisture. Protein, fiber and fat value of defatted coconut flour fortified biscuits increased with progressive increase in proportion of defatted coconut flour and 40% coconut flour added biscuits obtained values of 10.73%, 11.30% and 22.72% respectively, while the lowest values of 4.98%, 8.26% and 16.86% recorded for the wheat flour biscuits. The moisture and ash were increased with corresponding increase in the percentage of defatted coconut flour while showing the decrease in carbohydrate content. Defatted coconut flour incorporated cookies were found to be lesser harder than control cookies when tested for hardness with texture analyzer. 40% defatted coconut flour added biscuits scored the highest overall acceptable rating compared to other tested combinations and could be stored up to 5 months in aluminum package without significant changes in keeping quality. Keywords: biscuit, defatted coconut flour, nutritional profile, sensory evaluation Introduction Utilisation of food by – products and wastes receive more attention in the food industry. These wastes would be minimized through the utilisation of available resources into various types of food products. Therefore, an effective effort was needed to solve those problems by developing high nutritional and industrial potential of by – products, wastes and utilised directly for human consumption. Various attempts had been made for researching for the use of food by – products such as pomace of apple, citrus fruits, grape skin and seed, guava, mango and pineapple with a view to explore the potential applications and physiological activities of that particular food by – products. The demand for by – products from fruits and vegetables increased due to their high content in nutritional quality, low in caloric content, strong in antioxidant capacity and high water retention capacity. Virgin coconut oil is a recently emerging high demand product in the world. Defatted coconut flour is one of the major by – product generated from the virgin coconut oil industry. However, the defatted coconut flour is often discarded. The whitish residue remained after extracting virgin coconut oil can be milled into flour. The coconut flour can provide not only value added income to the country, but also a nutritious and Corresponding Author. Email: sujee3@gmail.com