As droughts increasingly impact wheat production in the United States, many producers are looking for more durable alternatives. The one that Drexel researchers think could be suitable for the American palate is a hardy grain that has been cultivated for centuries in Africa and Asia: pearl millet.
The challenge of introducing an alternative ingredient is always whether or not consumers will like the taste. So experts from Drexel’s Food Lab in the College of Nursing and Health Professions teamed up with the colleagues from University of Pennsylvania; City University of New York, Brooklyn College; and Monell Chemical Senses Center to study whether pearl millet could be an acceptable substitute in recipes that use wheat flour.
They found that up to 20% of whole wheat flour in sandwich-style whole grain bread can be replaced with fermented pearl millet flour without impacting taste or consumers’ willingness to buy it. Any higher amount, however, led to a drop in flavor appeal.
“Our goal is to identify the ‘sweet spot’ where we maximize both health benefits and consumer acceptance, ensuring that underutilized, nutrient-rich foods, like millet, can become more widely integrated into the U.S. diet,” says May M. Cheung, PhD nutrition sciences ’20, who is now an assistant professor at the City University of New York, Brooklyn College and lead author on the study.
These findings could impact food manufacturing and public health, as well as the need for further research collaborations and ways of thinking about modern food systems and appetites.
“This kind of interdisciplinary research, while familiar in food science, is relatively new in culinary science,” says Jonathan Deutsch, a Drexel alumnus turned College of Nursing & Health Professions professor, director of the Drexel Food Lab and co-author of the study. “Where food scientists often go to the chemistry of food to solve a problem, culinary scientists look to the food’s flavors and traditional foodways to solve a similar problem.” DM
