REDUCTION OF ANTINUTRIENTS IN PEARL MILLET (Pennisetum glaucum) USING HURDLE TECHNOLOGY

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is a staple food that supplies a major proportion of nutrition to large segments of the population living in Africa and Asia. The grain is nutritious but has some limitations due to the presence of antinutritional factors. Processing methods such as drying, washing, soaking, germination and autoclaving were used to reduce the antinutrients. The antinutrients analyzed were tannins, oxalates, polyphenols and phytic acid, which were found to reduce post processing. Germination, soaking and autoclaving reduced the level of antinutrients significantly. Hurdle technology was employed to study the combined effect of processing techniques and analyze the synergistic effect on the degradation of antinutrients. The individual treatments were assessed and the most suitable techniques for combination were found to be germination, soaking and autoclaving which were coupled with drying as the end technique to degrade the antinutrients and increase the In Vitro Protein Digestibility. Soaking + Germination + Drying combination degraded the antinutrients to the maximum level and increased IVPD from 51.032% to 66.571%.