Nutritional assessment of cookies supplemented with defatted wheat germ

Replacement of wheat flour with defatted wheat germ (DFWG) at levels of 0-25% was investigated for its effect on functional and nutritional properties of cookies. The crude protein content of DFWG was as high as 27.8% with a highly valuable amino acid profile, rich in essential amino acids, especially lysine (2.32 g/100 g). The physicochemical and sensory evaluation of cookies, revealed that up to 15% substitution of wheat flour with DFWG produced acceptable cookies similar to the control (100% wheat flour) cookies. The protein quality of the cookies was assessed through weanling albino rats by feeding a diet of cookies for 10 days, which was formulated to supply 10% protein, with a casein diet as a control. The cookies containing 15% DFWG, were best regarding protein bioavailability in rats. The protein efficiency ratio (PER), net protein utilization (NPU), biological value (BV) and true digestibility (TD) differed significantly among diets containing cookies with 0-10% DFWG, and casein diet when fed to rats. Diets containing 15% DFWG have values, of these parameters, similar to the casein diet. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.