The Effect of Adding Date Powder on the Chemical, Physical, and Sensory Properties of Oatmeal Cookies

Fresh date commercialization leads to significant waste, with approximately 30% of dates discarded due to low-grade classification. To combat food waste, date powder can be used in functional foods as a natural alternative to sucrose, which may be suitable for diabetics and those with food allergies. So, the present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of date powder as a natural sweetener instead of sucrose on the proximate chemical composition, physical properties and sensory characterizations of oatmeal cookies. However, the levels of replacement of date powder, which was used in the cookie's formula were 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%. The proximate chemical composition of date powder was determined. It was noticed that the moisture percentage was 9.18%, while crude fat, and ash contents were found at low levels being 1.81%, and 1.61% respectively. The crude protein, crude fiber and total carbohydrates constituted 2.64, 4.81% and 84.76%, respectively. The chemical components result indicated that increasing the DP ratio of oatmeal cookies led to an increase in the moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, and ash contents and a decrease in carbohydrate and total calorie content (p≤0.05) of the cookies compared to the control. Physical properties including weight, thickness, diameter, spread ratio and hardness in cookies up to 30% DP didn’t differ significantly compared to the control; these ratios recorded the best results. Partial replacement of sucrose with DP produced darker and reddish-colored cookies compared with the control. The total score for overall palatability was acceptable for all cookies, but samples of cookies containing up to 30% date powder had a higher total score than the other samples. In conclusion, this study confirms that date powder can be incorporated at levels of up to 30% in cookie production while preserving and enhancing the nutritional, sensory, and physicochemical qualities of the final