Development of Artemia Biscuits and Analysis of Their Nutritional and Flavor Characteristics

To explore the potential of Artemia to be developed as a food resource, promote the diversified development of the Artemia industry, and expand the biscuit food market. Biscuits containing Artemia flavor were developed. Single-factor experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of the Artemia addition, quinoa flour supplementation, and baking time and temperature on the sensory scores of the biscuits. Subsequently, the optimal processing parameters were determined using both response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) modeling. Furthermore, the nutritional and flavor profiles of the Artemia biscuits were characterized by means of nutritional composition and electronic tongue analyses as well as headspace solid-phase microextraction-coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS). Compared with the RSM model, the ANN model exhibited superior predictive and optimization capabilities, as demonstrated by its lower root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.8614, higher correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.9602, and smaller errors between the measured and predicted values. The ANN-optimized biscuit formulation was as follows: Artemia (13.56 g), quinoa flour (47.26 g), low-gluten wheat flour (100 g), milk (40 g), corn oil (30 g), butter (60 g), salt (2 g), and xylitol (25 g), baked at 150 °C for 20.70 min. This optimized process yielded the highest sensory score (73.00). Additionally, the biscuits contained 6.46 g/100 g protein and 30.30 g/100 g fat. Electronic tongue analysis indicated that the taste profile was dominated by umami and saltiness. Moreover, GC-MS identified 48 volatile compounds, primarily aldehydes, acids, esters, furans, and pyrazines, with (E,E)-2,4-decadienal exhibiting the highest content (103.7 µg/kg) and odor activity value (3840.74). The development of Artemia biscuits enriches the variety of products in the biscuit market and offers a novel approach and theoretical foundation for utilizing Artemia resources in the snack-food industry.