Interactive effect of additives on quality characteristics of retort processed RTE chapati and its optimization

The phenomenon of starch retrogradation in flatbreads (chapati) poses both short-term and long-term challenges, primarily affecting texture, shelf life, and consumer preference. Use of additives in baked foods has shown improvement due to their structural interaction with components of food matrix. In this study, additives namely citric acid, malic acid, diacetyl tartaric acid esters of monoglycerides (DATEM), sodium stearoyl-2 lactylate (SSL), and glycerol monostearate (GMS) were taken as factors and their effect was studied on quality parameters of chapati such as water activity (a_w), water-soluble starch, hardness, color analysis, and sensory characteristics. With statistical approach the optimized additives were 0.1% of citric and malic acid, 0.56% DATEM, 0.5% SSL, and 1% GMS. The study reveals with the incorporation of additives, the moisture and soluble starch content increased from 31.33 to 34.46% and 3.22 to 4.17%, respectively. The hardness values showed textural softness in optimized chapati (8.86 N) when compared to control (12.03 N), retort-processed chapati without additives. Also, the sensory attributes were not compromised with the incorporation of additives in chapaties. Thermal analysis resulted in reduced enthalpy and mass loss percentage in the optimized chapaties. The study confirms use of additives improved the quality attributes of ready-to-eat chapaties.