Development of a nutritious acceptable snack bar using micronized flaked lentils

Study objectives were to formulate a nutritious acceptable snack bar partially replacing oats with micronized flaked lentils (MFL), and to identify the sensory attributes that contribute to consumer acceptability. Six MFL snack bar formulations exhibiting a wide range of flavor and textural characteristics were developed from a mixture designed experiment. These bars and two commercial bars were evaluated by a consumer panel (n = 62) and a descriptive panel (n = 11). The highest mean acceptability values for one commercial sample (6.5) and three MFL bars (6.0) were not significantly different and corresponded to ‘like slightly’ on the 9-point hedonic scale. External preference mapping determined that sweetness, grainy and lentil flavors, hardness, cohesiveness, cohesiveness of mass and moistness had the greatest influence on consumer acceptability. MFL bars contained more dietary fibre, protein and iron in addition to an approximate sevenfold increase in folate over the all oat counterpart.