Physical and Sensory Evaluation of Foxtail Millet (Setaria italica) Beverage

Millet is one of the indigenous foods known to human and called for its superior nutritional and therapeutic use. Fermentation is one of the most commonly used methods in preparing millet based food products and it has been shown to improve the bioavailability of nutrients. The present study emphasizes on formulation of fermented product with foxtail millet flour as a ready-to-drink beverage. A Lactic Acid Bacterium (LAB) namely Lactobacillus acidophilus conquers a significant part in these developments, has an extended and safe history of practice and consumption in the fabrication of fermented beverages and foods. The methods used for processing foxtail millet are soaking (8 hrs), sun drying, milling, preparing foxtail millet slurry (60%), boiling (80oC), addition of complementary ingredients (almond paste 10%, coconut milk 10%, sugar 20% and cardamom powder 2 g), cooling, fermenting with probiotic strain (Lactobacillus acidophilus 0.2 mg/200ml), incubating (at 37oC for 24 hrs) and bottling. Optimization of probiotic foxtail millet drink was carried out by trained sensory panel members against control (without foxtail millet). Quality characteristics namely proximate, sensory and physicochemical properties like pH were investigated at 12 hours interval for 2 days. The fermented foxtail millet beverage possessed significantly higher values of proximate principles (81% moisture, 3.4 % ash, 12% carbohydrate, 2% protein, 1.6% fat) than control. Scores for all sensory parameters reduced with the increase in storage period. From the present study, it could be concluded that foxtail millet based fermented beverage not only serve as a nutrient dense drink but also it acts as a carrier to deliver beneficial micro biota which would nourish the gut. Recent research studies on fermentation and biotechnology reveal that, daily consumption of probiotics could positively protect human from non-communicable diseases such as ulcer, colitis and cance