Sweet Potato as a Fat Replacer in Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

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Abstract Creating healthier desserts and snacks is in high demand from consumers as obesity rates in the United States are on the rise. Substituting sweet potato for butter into oatmeal raisin cookies was studied to see how replacing butter in the recipe affected the color, texture, and taste of the cookies compared to the normal oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. Variations of half‐fat replacement (50% fat replaced) and full‐fat replacement (100% fat replaced) were tested against the control to determine which variable consumers would like most. Objective measures from the Hunter Colorimeter, Water Activity System, and Texture Analyzer were recorded as well as sensory measures from 30 panelists using a Hedonic scale. It was found that the most preferred variable was the cookie with half‐fat replacement. Introduction In the past decade, creating overall healthier desserts and snacks has been a high consumer demand as the nation has become more aware of our growing health issues. An estimated 32% of children and 66% of adults are overweight and obese, which has been steadily increasing over the last thirty years (Lloyd‐Jones, 2010). This increase in obesity has also led to a higher prevalence in heart disease, diabetes, and other correlated health problems in recent years. For this reason, producing more heart‐healthy food items has been a major target in the food industry. One way to decrease the dietary fat in foods is to substitute fat with a fat replacer to lower the amounts of saturated fats and trans‐fat that can lead to the growing obesity and health issues. One possible substitute that was tested was the use of sweet potatoes as a fat replacer. Sweet potatoes are not only a healthier option than butter in cookies but they also provide additional vitamin and mineral benefits. They are an excellent source of vitamin A, which is converted into beta‐carotene, and are a good source of vitamins B, C, and E and the minerals manganese and potassium. It is also a decent source of dietary fiber. These nutritional advantages can help consumers
eat preferred foods, such as cookies and sweets, while maintaining their daily vitamin and mineral values. These nutrients may help prevent against cancer and heart disease and contribute to boosting the immune system, healing wounds, and preventing blindness (Palmer, 2009). In order to help control fat intake in a consumer accepted product, such as oatmeal raisin cookies, the fat (butter) in the cookies was replaced with sweet potatoes that had been softened in boiling water and mashed. The idea behind this was to produce an oatmeal raisin cookie that is similar in consumer acceptance to the original, while containing half the amount of calories from fat and no saturated fat or trans‐fat. Three trials each of full replacement of fat, half replacement of fat, and no replacement of fat (the control group), were tested to see which looked the most similar to the control, while tasting similar in flavor and texture. It has been proven that consumers accept fat replacements in food products with up to 25‐50% fat replacement (Wekwete, 2008). From this, it can be deduced that the half‐replaced cookie would be the one that is both healthier and accepted by the public. Changing the fat in an already acceptable food product can affect the flavor, texture, and color of the cookie. The raisins in the oatmeal raisin cookie were used to mask the bland flavor that the mashed sweet potatoes would give over the butter, which had a sweeter flavor. Also, because sweet potatoes are a deep orange color, their appearance had a slightly different color than the original cookie. Oatmeal has a distinct brown color and since it was the major ingredient, it hopefully distracted from the orange tint that was contained in the cookies made using sweet potatoes. This orange tint could have also been disguised by the Maillard Browning effect. The Maillard Reaction is a chemical reaction that takes place in the presence of an amino acid and a reducing sugar, typically using heat application. This leads to the product browning, which can be acceptable in baked goods to a certain degree. For the oatmeal raisin cookies, a small amount of Maillard Browning is wanted and produced under normal baking conditions. According to research on the browning effects of sweet potato content, a higher percentage of sweet potato in the product could lead to a faster and
Page 1: Sweet Potato as a Fat Replacer in O
Page 5 and 6: Methods Preparation Using a regular
Page 7 and 8: the color difference of the three v
Page 9 and 10: Figure 1: Hunter Colorimeter Trial
Page 11 and 12: Figure 5: Texture Analyzer Values f
Page 13 and 14: Figure 9 shows the results of the p
Page 15 and 16: The panelists also preferred the ov
Page 17 and 18: References Bhosale S.S., Biswas A.K
Page 19 and 20: II. Photographs of the Control, Var
Page 21 and 22: III. Raw Data for Trials 1, 2, and

Sweet Potato as a Fat Replacer in Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

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