USO DEL ALGA MARINA Sargassum spp. ADICIONADA A LA HARINA DE TRIGO PARA PREPARAR GALLETAS ALIMENTICIAS PARA CONSUMO HUMANO

Using seaweed Sargassum spp. added to wheat flour to make cookies for human consumption Current availability of Sargassum spp. in the east coast of Baja California peninsula, Mexico, is 183,000 annual MG which are not being completely utilized, so it would be useful to add the algae to new products for human consumption, besides increasing the economy of the fishery sector. We evaluated the rheologic characteristics on three commercially available wheat flours added with 0, 2, 4, and 6 % of the algae flour which indicated that Sargassum may be used as "bread enhancer" of soft flour in concentrations of 2 % in whole products. Subsequently, cookies were prepared considering an appropriate chemical score based on the amino acid profile of wheat and Sargassum; likewise, their hardness should not exceed that of commercial cookies. This allowed the selection of a 15 and 20% addition of Sargassum, and the incorporation of chocolate to mask the dark color of the algae. Taking into account the first two levels of a five-point hedonic scale, acceptance of cookies with 20 % of Sargassum was 72 % (flavor), 81 % (color), 79 % (salt), 54 % (sugar), and 64 % (texture). These cookies outperformed the wheat flour cookies in mineral content (3.2 times) and dietary fiber (2.7 times), thus resulting in an adequate alternative to introduce an algae product into the market and increase their added value.