Received: November 12, 2024 Accepted: November 18, 2024 Published: November 18, 2024
Advancement in lifestyle and abject eating habits paved a path towards the compromised nutritional status. Increased consumption of fast food and instant meals demand to be nutritionally adequate in order to lower the increased burden of NCD’s. Among the instant food, bread spread is the third most commonly used product by consumers. It is consumed throughout the day during a meal and snacking. However, such type of products are not widely available in markets, especially in Pakistan and mostly imported from the United States. In this, various spread like garlic enriched spread can promise various functional and therapeutic benefits. Garlic (Allium sativum) is an aromatic herbaceous plant that is consumed worldwide as food and traditional remedy for various health ailments, having several biological properties, including antihypertensive, anticarcinogenic, antioxidant, antidiabetic, Reno protective, antiatherosclerotic, antibacterial, and antifungal activities. The present project was designed to prepare indigenous garlic enriched functional spread. For this purpose garlic was converted into a paste in different combinations T1 (2% garlic), T2 (3% garlic) and T3 (4% garlic). Garlic spread was prepared and evaluated for proximate i.e. moisture (58.63 to 57.92), crude protein (13.64 to 13.53), crude fat (27.25 to 28.12), crude fiber (0.2 to 0.4), and ash (1.78 to 1.93) respectively. The demonstration of mineral content of functional spread shows that potassium (10.703 to 21.377), calcium (5.6333 to 11.233), phosphorus (6.7433 to 13.483), sodium (15.567 to 11.667), iron (0.0633 to 0.1300), and zinc (0.900 to 0.400). The antioxidant results range of TPC (4.56 to 4.70), whereas, TFC (1.27 to 1.94) and DPPH (10.98 to 13.95). The functional spread was also assessed for color, aroma, texture mouth feel and overall acceptability. Based on composition and sensory analysis, the functional spread containing 3% garlic (T2) was preferred as the best treatment due to its color (7.40), taste (7.28), aroma (7.85), texture (7.28), mouth feel (7.57) and overall acceptability (7.12). From the results it was clear that there was a need to use underrated but versatile vegetables like garlic to develop value added food snacks with high nutrition value.