Development of a cereal bar containing the plant pereskiaacuelata miller

The Pereskiaacuelata plant has high nutritional value in its leaves, being rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals. The present work had as objetive develop a cereal bar containing the Pereskiaacuelata plant. The leaves of P. aculeata were dried and crushed in a knife mill and then the powder obtained from the plant was used in the preparation of the cereal bar, along with oat bran, rice flakes, sucrose syrup and honey. To evaluate the quality control of the product, tests were carried out for of humidity, pH, acidity, verification of the protein content and microbiological analysis were carried out. The developed product was subjected to sensory analysis, with a group of 30 untrained tasters, chosen at random. In the moisture test, pH, acidity and microbiological tests, the results were within the established limits. In the test to evaluate the protein content, the value obtained was 13.34%, which was considered satisfactory. As for the sensory analysis, the research showed diverse opinions, ranging from very much liked to very much disliked. In this way, the cereal bar developed presented adequate quality, mainly due to the high protein content, and may be beneficial to health, being a functional food alternative.