Nutritional parameters of raw materials and mixtures as base for producing breakfast cereals

From the most eldest times cereals were an important source of food. Their high content in carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, mineral substances (K, Ca, Mg, Si, Na, Cu, Mo, Mn) and vitamins like (B1, B2, B5, B6, PP) offer our organism a high percentage of the energy and mineral substances that it needs for survival. Alongside the cereals, bens vegetables tend to complete the lack of cereals, bringing a high amount of nutrients. The main purpose of this paper was to investigate the relevant nutritional parameters to elaborate breakfast cereals from a mix of whole wheat flour, soybean flour, millet flour, lentil, rice, oatmeal, chickpeas in order to see which flours and combination of flours gives the ideal dough for extrusion. There were analysed the protein content (%), moisture (%), ash (%), fat (%) , gluten content (%), in the laboratory of milling and baking from the Faculty of Food Processing Technology of USAMVB Timisoara. The analyses were performed by spectrophotometer with Fourier transformer, Infra LUM FT – 10. To the studied mixtures, it can be seen that in each case, except mixture 7 (lentil 25%+ 75 % rice) was recorded high values of gluten, followed by proteins, minerals and fats. From the above data it can be noticed that each mixture is a quite a good candidate to manufacture cereal flakes. It was observed that mixtures in combination with water gives an gelatinous composition similar to classic bread dough, which makes them ideal for processing in an extruder for cereal flakes