Use of Vegetables as a New Ingredient in the Formulation of Cupcakes for New Trends and Eating Habits

Abstract

Day by day, there is a growing trend and interest in introducing new ingredients and elements to create food to guarantee or achieve food safety and good health. With these creations, it is tried that the new foods satisfy needs at a nutritional level, mainly because of the benefits that they can offer for specific health conditions that some individuals of the population present, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, and some cancers, among others. On the other hand, it is also tried with these new foods that can help to supply dietary preferences that, in one way or another, are associated with all those changes in consumption habits in communities. Changes are given by factors such as obesity or aging, and that in the end, changes are associated with needs, acquired behaviours, or people's conditions. Among the versatile products for incorporating new ingredients and generating new formulas are from the bakery activity. It is common on these products to find that vegan Cupcakes are offered (those that are made with only fruits and without any derived from animals such as milk or eggs) and sweet Cupcakes (made with sugar). In this work, the introduction of vegetarian and vegan cupcakes, made from ingredients such as spinach, carrots, tomatoes, corn, and mushrooms, is presented as an innovation. These cupcakes are characterized by low carbohydrate content and are ideal for maintaining low-fat, low-carb diets. During the work, preferences of a segment of the population between 25-40 years old are evaluated, who have health problems related to diabetes, and consider the cupcake proposal attractive. Additionally, characteristics of the formulated and developed product are presented.