Physical and sensory properties of corn flakes with added dry residue of wild oregano distillation

According to the modern nutritionists, cereal products such as flakes and snacks are the most common foods in the daily diet. The extrusion tech­nology makes it possible to apply different sources of ingredients for the enrichment of cereal-based flakes or snack products. Substances with strong antioxidant properties such as wild oregano have a positive impact on human health. Therefore, they attract the attention of scientists, consumers and food industry experts. This paper investigates the effects of the simultaneous addi­tion of dry residue from wild oregano distillation (0.5 g/100 g sample and 1 g/100 g sample), on the physical- textural and color properties of corn flakes in order to create a new product with improved nutritional properties. The addition of dry residue of wild oregano positively influenced the physical char­acteristics of the corn flakes (decrease in the bulk density by 30.2 %, and increase in the expansion rate by 44.9 %), as well as led to decrease in their texture hardness andwork of compression by 42.8 and 40.3 %, respectively. Also, the oregano significantly changed the color of the flakes. The Tukey’s HSD test showed statistically significant differences between most of the mean values of physical-textural, color and sensory attributes of the oregano-added corn flakes and the ones of the control sample. A principal component analysis has been applied to classify the samples according to the differences in the studied parameters. The data showed that the investigated corn flakes with added dry residue from wild oregano distillation is a new food product with good physical-textural and sensory properties due to a higher level of its anti­oxidant activity. Moreover, this new product may contribute to the valorization of edible industrial waste in food production.