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Traditionally prepared enset-based products like bulla are characterised by low protein and vitamin contents and are highly viscous; this causes protein-energy malnutrition especially in infants and young children. This paper aims to improve the nutritional and sensory qualities of enset-based food with pumpkin and amaranth.

Sixteen formulations of composite flour were generated using a D-optimal constrained mixture design with a range of 50-80 per cent bulla, 10-25 per cent pumpkin and 10-40 per cent amaranth flour. Nutritional and sensory qualities of the formulations were investigated using standard methods.

Ash, fat and protein contents increased from 1.1-2.8 g/100 g (p < 0.001), 1.7-3.9 g/100 g (p < 0.001) and 6.1-9.0 g/100 g (p < 0.001) respectively with the increased amaranth flour. Crude fibre content increased with increasing percentage of the amaranth and pumpkin flours. On the other hand, carbohydrate content increased from 78.2 to 84.3 per cent (p < 0.001) with an increase of bulla flour. A significant increase in Fe, Zn and Ca from 6.8-10.5 (p < 0.01), 1.5-3.0 (p = 0.022) and 1.8-148.5 mg/g (p < 0.001) respectively was achieved with an increase in amaranth ratio in flour. The total carotenoid content increased with increase in the percentage of pumpkin flour. The best sensory attributes of the developed product were around the centre point of the three ingredients.

The study showed that a product with good nutritional value and sensory acceptability could be prepared from enset-based ingredients and the optimal product was obtained by blending 57.8 per cent bulla, 18.9 per cent pumpkin and 23.3 per cent amaranth flour. The enriched flour can have application for snack food preparation.

Demographic and socioeconomic changes, and health issues, promote interest in emerging countries for healthy foods, taking traditional foods under the perspective of functional foods. Amaranth has moved from local to a wider consumption as a functional food. The purpose of this paper is to identify consumers’ perception about amaranth and its relation to consumption motives.

A questionnaire was applied to 610 respondents, and free word association determined their perception about amaranth through categories. Cluster analysis identified groups of consumers according to their motives for consumption. Global χ² and correspondence analysis related consumers’ perceptions in the groups were identified.

A total of 16 word categories reflected consumers’ perception about amaranth. Most mentioned were: Traditional product, Hedonism and Health and well-being. Three groups showed significant differences regarding motives of consumption. It is concluded that perceptions about amaranth are closely linked to the motives of consumption. Perceptions of health benefits are related to motives for health issues and taste. There is a group that still consumes amaranth perceived as a traditional food.

As a functional food, these results could be useful to promote amaranth from its perception as healthy. Producers might develop products based on amaranth that meet perceptions considering gender and age in Mexico and other emergent countries.

This work contributes knowledge to international research that analyses traditional foods as functional foods and consumer perceptions on these. It is a first approach to identify perceptions of Mexican consumers towards amaranth as a traditional and a functional food.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the acceptability of an identified staple product enriched with amaranth grain, a traditionally used wild plant familiar to most of the population, after households’ food security status revealed that the majority of them were either at risk or food insecure.

A two-phase non-experimental, quantitative survey design with purposive sampling was used to explore the variety of foods consumed and the food security status of lower skilled (n=63) and higher skilled (n=81) income-earning households. During the second phase, recipe development and sensory acceptance of bread enriched with grain amaranth (n=91) were determined. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data.

Food insecurity was evident among the majority of the lower skilled income households while nearly one in four households in both groups were at risk to become insecure. Daily consumption of chicken and maize meal was evident in lower income households while the frequency in higher income households were significantly less. Bread was found to be the most consumed food product among all households (p=0.001; r=0.455). Supplementation of wheat flour with amaranth flour, a nutritious traditionally familiar wild plant, to support households’ food consumption was investigated. Results from sensory evaluation panels revealed that both bread samples with different percentage of amaranth flour (15 and 25 per cent) were acceptable.

The most important contribution of this study is the re-introduction and incorporation of a traditional food, amaranth, into a modern frequently consumed food to support households’ nutritional and monetary demands to ultimately contribute to general well-being and household food security.

Amaranth leaves which are an excellent source of calcium, iron, β‐carotene and protein, grow as a weed during the rainy season in Haryana State. This study aims to incorporate nutrient dense dried amaranth leaves powder in products commonly consumed in Haryana State, India.

Fresh amaranth leaves were dried at 50 ± 5 ^○C. The products like biscuits, mathi, matar and sev commonly consumed in Haryana State, were prepared using 5 per cent dried amaranth leaf powder. Amaranth leaf powder was not added in the products which served as control. The nutrient composition of the prepared products was analysed. The nutrient composition of control and supplemented products was compared.

The supplemented products like biscuit, mathi, matar and sev had significantly higher protein, fat, ash and fibre contents as compared to their control. The total soluble sugar, reducing sugar and non reducing sugar content of supplemented biscuit was significantly higher than control biscuit. The phytic acid and tannin content significantly increased and in vitro protein and starch digestibility significantly decreased in all the supplemented products as compared to their respective controls. Supplemented biscuit had about one and a half times higher Ca and supplemented mathi and matar had double the amount of Ca than their respective controls. The increase in Mg, Fe and Zn content in all the supplemented products was significant.

Amaranth leaves are abundantly available during the rainy season, and can be successfully incorporated in commonly consumed food products without adding any extra cost.

Amaranth leaf powder supplemented products are a very good source of protein, fibre, calcium and iron. Consumption of such value added products may contribute in improving the nutritional status of the population especially the vulnerable section.

Pasta is popularly consumed in developed and developing countries. Many low-income homes that could not afford protein-rich foods consumed pasta without further supplements as a meal. However, pasta is deficient in protein and some other health-promoting substances. Deoiled sesame and amaranth flours are rich in protein, minerals, amino acids, antioxidants and many non-nutrient-based health benefits. Formulating a nutrient-dense pasta product (spaghetti) would reduce protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) and improve the health status of pasta consumers. This study aims to investigate some bioactive, nutrients and non-nutrient components of developed and optimized spaghetti pasta from deoiled sesame, amaranth and modified sorghum starch blend.

Amaranth, sorghum and sesame grains were sorted, wet-cleaned and dried. Sesame grain was roasted while starch was extracted from sorghum grain. The innate starch was modified by heat-moisture treatment. The prepared grains and starch were milled into flours and formulated into different flour mixtures using the Box-Behnken design of response surface methodology and the process was modeled and optimized. The flour mixtures were made into spaghetti pasta. Proximate, mineral, amino acids, biological value, protein efficiency ration, phytochemical, antioxidant activity, physico-functional and sensory properties of the formulated spaghetti were evaluated using standard procedures.

An optimal mixture of deoiled sesame (31.12g/100g), amaranth (56.56g/100g) and modified sorghum starch (12.32g/100g) were established, which yielded protein (25.79g/100g), appearance (96.65%), taste (94.57%) and acceptability index (97.37%). The spaghetti was significantly (p-values ranged from 0.001 to 0.018) superior in protein, ash, fat, fiber, calcium, magnesium, zinc, alkaloids, total phenolic, flavonoids, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazl (DPPH) and ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) relative to the control (100% wheat flour). Amino acid showed that the product is rich in histidine, isoleucine, phenylalanine and threonine. The high essential amino acid index of the product indicated that it is a good protein source. The spaghetti was significantly (p-values ranged from 0.001 to 0.021) superior in aroma, taste and acceptability index relative to the control.

This study showed the feasibility of developing spaghetti pasta from deoiled sesame, amaranth grains and modified sorghum starch. The production process described in this study is scalable; and the process could be applied on a small scale for the development of self-entrepreneurs and industrially. The high protein content of the product indicated that it could be used to reduce PEM in developing countries.

This study aims to create a systematic knowledge base on importance and utilization patterns of underrated pseudo-cereals prevalent in the northeastern hilly (NEH) region of India, namely, buckwheat, Job’s tears, chenopod and amaranth, enabling their diversified use to develop innovative food products from them. The information presented in the paper would facilitate scientists, trainers and young entrepreneurs in developing many novel food products from these underrated pseudo-cereals.

Major scientific information has been collected from Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar. Several keywords such as underrated crop, pseudo-cereals, buckwheat, chenopod, Job’s tears, amaranth, value addition and utilization were used to find the data. Relevant information was collected by using about 60 recent research and review articles.

The main findings of this comprehensive study include compiled record of utilization of underrated pseudo-cereals found in the NEH region of India and their scope to innovate smart food products.

The paper presents a comprehensive record of nutritional benefits and utilization status of the underrated pseudo-cereals available in the NEH region of India. This knowledge base would help both the researchers and other professional working in the processing of these crops.

Yam flour (YMF) is an important staple food in the tropics but its utilization is limited by low nutrient and consumer acceptability. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of substituting yam flour with grain amaranth on chemical and sensory properties.

YMF and grain amaranth flour (GAF) were prepared on a dry matter basis; GAF was mixed with YMF at ratio 1:3. All flour samples were subjected to chemical (moisture, protein, fat, ash, crude fibre, carbohydrate and minerals) evaluation and sensory evaluation of the stiff gel was conducted by a ten‐member panel consisting of five adult males and five females.

GAF increased the protein content of YMF significantly at p < 0.05 from 1.8 to 9.63 per cent. There was a decrease in carbohydrate content of YAF when substituted with GAF. There was a significant increase (at p < 0.05) in phosphorus and sodium elements when YMF was substituted with GAF. There was no significant difference in acceptability of gel from grain amaranth and yam flour (GAF–YMF) compared with whole YMF gel on colour, texture, flavour and overall acceptability.

It was apparent that substitution of YMF with GAF improved nutrient composition without affecting the acceptability. This will further improve the nutritional status of people in YMF‐consuming areas.

In his review of 30 years of research in Prospect Theory, Barberis (2013) notes that support for Prospect Theory had come mainly from the laboratory. In this paper, I write about a recurring phenomenon in real life that is consistent with Prospect Theory predictions in decision-making loss domain. The 60 cases noted in this paper are associated with specific risk seekers that had cost more than $140 billion (an average of $2.33 billion per case). Given space consider– ations, I provide synopses for 14 cases. A few of these cases have been discussed in the extant literature in connection with internal control, but were not considered from the perspective of Prospect Theory. It is striking that these cases are costly, all participants are young men, and almost all had followed the gambler’s martingale strategy – i.e., double down. While these cases are informative about risk-seeking behavior, they are not sufficiently systematic to be subjected to stylized archival research methods.

The purpose of the study was to produce a healthier, convenient and traditional ready-to-eat (RTE) snack option with increased nutritional value, using spent hen meat, dietary fibre (DF) and simple technological methods. The product was designed to be stable without refrigeration and be easily adoptable by local self-help groups, rural women and youth and entrepreneurs in urban and semi-urban areas.

Conventional binder used for making snacks, i.e. rice flour was partially replaced by different sources of antioxidant DFs, i.e. oat flour (T₁ – 10%), finger millet flour (T₂ – 5%) and amaranth flour (T₃ –15%) to prepare spent hen snack sticks (SHSS). The snacks were then packaged in low density polyethylene (LDPE) pouches and evaluated for their storage stability at ambient temperature for a period of 35 days. Their physico-chemical, sensory and microbiological quality was evaluated at a regular interval of 7 days. The proximate composition of developed SHSS was compared to commercially available snack products (chakli/murukku – snacks without meat).

The fibre-enriched SHSS showed significant improvement in nutritive value, as they contained more fibre (p = 0.001) and protein (p = 0.029) than control SHSS. When compared to commercially available snack product SHSS showed three-fold significant increase in protein (p = 0.000) and ash content (p = 0.001) and only 11%–12% total fat as compared to 31% fat in the market-available product. The most acceptable treatment in terms of overall sensory quality and nutritional aspects was T₃; however, T₂ was more shelf-stable during the storage period. The study showed that fibre-enriched snacks can be stored at ambient temperature for up to 35 days without substantial loss in physico-chemical, sensory and microbial quality. Hence, substituting rice flour with DFs can lead to the development of products with better sensory attributes and improved functionality.

The simplicity of the product in terms of composition, machinery and low production costs makes it an easily adoptable one by small-scale entrepreneurs, especially those belonging to semi-urban areas.

Incorporation of spent hen meat, a relatively cheap but abundant source of protein, in RTE products can serve as an effective way to alleviate protein malnutrition, whereas addition of fibre further improves the functionality of the product. The methodology can be easily taken up by small-scale entrepreneurs and create a market for snack-based functional meat products.