Sprouted quinoa flour and fat reduction in shortcrust cookies: effects on nutritional composition, instrumental color and texture, antioxidant capacity, and temporal sensory profile

Abstract

Undernutrition and overweight coexist as public health burdens in many developing countries, motivating the reformulation of widely consumed snacks. The combined effects of sprouted quinoa flour (SQF) (0% and 20%) and fat reduction (0%, 10%, and 20%) were evaluated on the physicochemical, antioxidant, temporal sensory properties, and consumer acceptance of shortcrust cookies. SQF increased crude fiber, ash, moisture, a*, b*, chroma, and antioxidant capacity, and decreased nitrogen-free extract, hardness, fracturability, L*, and hue angle. Fat reduction increased nitrogen-free extract, hardness, fracturability, cooked weight, and total phenolic compounds, while reducing crude fat and total digestible nutrients. Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) revealed that sweet and crunchy sensations dominated in conventional cookies, whereas hard, quinoa flavor, and bitter sensations became dominant in SQF cookies. Canonical Variates Analysis confirmed SQF as the dominant driver of differentiation (Can1 = 69.5%, Can2 = 22.5%), and Temporal Drivers of Liking (TDL) identified sweet and crunchy as positive drivers and bitter and hard as negative ones. Cookies without SQF received higher acceptance scores (range 6.65–7.10) than SQF cookies (5.34–5.66; p < 0.05), with no significant differences across fat reduction levels within each SQF condition. Up to 20% fat reduction can be implemented in conventional shortcrust cookies without compromising acceptance, while SQF substantially enhances the antioxidant profile.