Archives of Current Research International

The health or protein drink mix is a product containing vital nutrients designed to enhance protein levels. A nourishing protein beverage blend was created by incorporating cowpea protein isolate along with malted finger millet flour to elevate its nutritional value. The study aims to focus on developing a rich protein-rich beverage mix from the cowpea protein isolate, which could be convenient to use. The finger millet, jaggery, cardamom, chocolate and vanilla essence were procured from the local market in Dharwad. Malting of finger millet was performed by soaking, germination, drying, and roasting. The protein-enriched beverage mix was prepared by combining and blending all the ingredients as per the formulations. The present investigation focused on the development of a protein beverage mix by incorporating cowpea protein isolate to enhance the protein quality parameters. For organoleptic evaluation of protein-rich beverage mix and to check the significance between the variations, one-way ANOVA was used. The different variations of cowpea protein isolate are tested with levels of 0, 7.5, 10, 12.5per cent. The performed investigation resulted in the finding that all samples (T0, T1, T2 and T3) were organoleptically acceptable. Formulation (T2) was found to gain a higher score for sensory parameters (colour and appearance- 8.70, flavour- 8.30, taste- 8.20, consistency and overall acceptability- 8.40) with an acceptability index of 93.89 per cent. Beverage, being a protein-rich food, enriched with different flavours, will be most appetising and provide the best protein products for a vegan-based diet and replace animal-based food products. The selected sample (T2) was found to have a higher level of protein and in vitro protein digestibility (26g/100g and 90 % respectively). Thus, it can be concluded that protein beverage mix can contribute to the dietary status of consumers, leading to improvement in product acceptability.