Improving the Nutritional Values of Wheat and Rice Crackers by Using Cauliflowers

The present study described the enhancement of the nutritional values of wheat and rice crackers by adding cauliflowers. The results showed that 25% - 75% cauliflower replaced in crackers increased the consumer acceptability, nutritional value, antioxidant activity, minerals, and anti-carcinogenic effect. Moreover, it also improved the functional properties and sensory quality. The results revealed that the raw samples of cauliflower recorded the highest value of moisture, ash, protein and fiber 89.29%, 7.68%, 19.04% and 10.18% on dry weight, respectively. The crackers formula of cauliflower: wheat 75%:25% and cauliflower: rice 75%:25% recorded the highest values in ash, protein, fat, and fiber. The data showed that increasing cauliflower percentage in crackers formula causing a parallel increase in all determined chemical composition. Cauliflower samples exhibited the highest antioxidant activity (92.94%). Also, crackers samples of cauliflower: wheat 75%:25% crackers, recorded 57.6% for antioxidant activity. The highest values of phenols and flavonoids for cauliflower cracker samples (cauliflower: wheat 75%:25% and cauliflower: rice 50%:50%) have increased up to (5.75 and 5.49) respectively. The results showed that the higher mineral content is the sulfur (635.96 mg/100g) in raw cauliflower, while (1.00 mg/100g, and 0.99 mg/100g sulfur content) in wheat and rice respectively. Moreover, the result found that as the cauliflower percentage increases, the minerals contents especially sulfur increase. Furthermore, the cauliflower displayed moderate activity for human hepatocellular carcinoma, colon cancer and intestinal epithelial barrier treatment, (IC50 = 183.4 ± 6.8, 175.8 ± 7.1 and 207.2 ± 8.5 μg/mL, respectively). There were significant differences in the taste property;the highest degree of acceptance of the taste was obtained to crackers samples which were replaced with cauliflower more than the control.