Study on the effect of incorporation of irradiated sunflower flour on the physico-chemical and sensory properties of biscuits during the storage period

Sunflower seeds are highly popular in food mixes, especially biscuits and are thought tobe nutritionally beneficial. These seeds are rich in healthy fats, useful plant compoundsand many vitamins and minerals. The present study was conducted to investigate theeffect of the incorporation of irradiated sunflower flour on the physico-chemical andsensory properties of biscuits during the storage period. The physical and chemicalproperties of wheat flour with 72% extraction, nonirradiated sunflower flour andsunflower flour irradiated with 5 kGy and 10 kGy were estimated. Additionally, thephysical, chemical and sensory properties of extracted oils from the biscuits were alsoevaluated during storage periods of two and four months. The refractive index, peroxidevalue and iodine value decreased as the storage period increased, while acids such as oleicacid and the acid value increased slowly and gradually. Additionally, the fatty acids of theoils extracted from biscuits during storage were high in unsaturated fatty acids at thebeginning of storage. After two and four months of storage, an increase in saturated fattyacids and a decrease in unsaturated fatty acids was observed. The results showed that theoverall acceptability of sunflower flour biscuits irradiated at a dose of 10 kGy was highest,while the control biscuits had the lowest acceptability after 4 months of storage. It wasconcluded that the substitution of up to 10% of wheat flour with nonirradiated orirradiated sunflower flour can be a good method for food product development due to theability of sunflower flour to improve the nutritional value and overall acceptability ofbiscuits.