Umme Habiba, Md. A. Robin, Md. M. Hasan, Maria A. Toma, Delara Akhter, Md. A. R. Mazumder. 2021. Nutritional, textural, and sensory quality of bars enriched with banana flour and pumpkin seed flour. Foods and Raw Materials. Vol. 9, no. 2, Pages 282-289

Introduction. Nowadays, health-conscious consumers attend to nutritional, health, and easy-to-use products. Demand for healthysnacks is significantly increasing. Our study aimed to develop high protein nutrition bars by incorporating pumpkin seed flour andbanana flour and assess their quality.Study objects and methods. We analyzed three bar samples for nutritional, textural, and sensory quality. The bars contained bananaflour, pumpkin seed flour, and the mixed flour. Proximate analysis was performed following the AOAC method. The mineral contentand antioxidant properties of the bars were determined by using emission spectrophotometry and the 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl(DPPH) free radical scavenging modified method, respectively.Results and discussion. The mixed flour nutrition bar had significantly higher total phenolic content and antioxidant activity thanthe bar with banana flour and the bar with pumpkin seed flour. Textural analysis demonstrated that the mixed flour sample hadsignificantly (P < 0.05) higher hardness and color parameters compared to the other bar samples. Nutritional analysis indicated thatmixed flour bar contained significantly higher amounts of protein, fat, and calcium; while pumpkin seed flour bar had higher ash, iron,and magnesium contents. The mixed flour sample also had better sensory parameters.Conclusion. The mixed flour demonstrated good quality. Hence, both banana and pumpkin seed flour have a potential to be used inbar formulations. Keywords: Nutrition bar, banana, pumpkin seed, flour, nutritional value, textural properties, sensory analysis.