Most parents and guardians rely on highly processed biscuits and ready-to-eat packed pastries for their children’s snacks. Reliance and excessive consumption of these foods may lead to nutrition-related problems. The objectives of this study were to optimize a nutrient dense biscuit, determine the nutrient composition, and evaluate the sensory acceptability of the product. The study was conducted in Barangay Halang, Calamba City, Laguna which involved 50 generally healthy school-age children. The standardization of nutrient-dense biscuits
involved the selection of raw materials, substitution of flours and oils, and addition of dehydrated and ground ingredients such as malunggay, squash, carrots, and sesame seeds. Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine the significance of each treatment for each response variable. Results revealed that all the sensory characteristics evaluated across different treatments showed that there were significant differences (p-value <0.0001). Pairwise Comparison using Dunn’s Test also revealed that Controls Day 1 and Day 2 were significantly different from the rest of the treatments in all the sensory characteristics evaluated which include appearance, taste, sweetness, texture, and smell. For the overall acceptability of the treatments, 98% of the respondents said that Controls Day 1 and Day 2 were acceptable while for Treatments 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 13, only 54 to 66% of the respondents said that these treatments were acceptable. Unusual appearance, texture, the combination of ingredients, the environment and ambiance where the sensory evaluation was conducted, the influence of the parents or guardians, and the lack of evaluation experience of the respondents may have affected the results. It is recommended that the probability sampling technique can be used for sensory evaluation and further experimentations on the proportions of the ingredients, shelf life, and packaging may be studied.