Resumen
- Nutritional deficiencies are common among children in Colombia, and innovative strategies and supplements are needed in order to effectively address this problem. For example, in Colombia, when measured as ferritin, iron deposits are deficient in 58.2% of children between two and eight years of age. If a formulation is made with highly nutritional ingredients, cookies will have the potential to be used as supplements in children’s diets because of their simple manufacturing process, long shelf life, and high acceptability. This study aimed to develop biofortified cookies, based on a bean-cassava-wheat flour mix, for children. The methodology grouped several studies in order to define the best treatment for the production of bean flour and the flour mix to produce cookies, prioritizing the nutritional content and the microbiological and sensorial quality. A production procedure for bean-based flour, suitable for the production of cookies with adequate nutritional, sensorial and microbiological characteristics was obtained. Additionally, the rheological characteristics of the proposed flour mixes permitted other possible uses for the bread-making industry, substituting cereal flours with flours with higher micronutrient contents. However, further studies are needed to determine the nutritional effects of the regular ingestion of biofortified cookies on children. © 2014, Universidad Nacional de Colombia1. All rights reserved.