Effects of cowpea fortification, dehydration method and storage time on some quality characteristics of maize-based traditional weaning foods

Effects of cowpea fortification, dehydration method and storage time on some quality characteristics of maize-based traditional weaning foods

Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, E Sakyi-Dawson, S Sefa-Dedeh

Fortification of cereal-based traditional foods with legume protein can improve their nutritional value. It is, however, important to find out the extent to which the addition of cowpea affects the desirable quality characteristics of traditional weaning foods prepared from fermented maize and also to assess the effect of dehydration method and storage time on the chemical, physico-chemical and functional properties of the products. A 3 x 2 x 4 factorial experiment with cowpea level, drying method and storage time as the respective variables was done. The traditional weaning food was prepared by steeping maize in water for 24 hours, mixed with cowpea and co-milled into a meal. A 50%-moisture dough was made with the addition of water and fermented for 24 hours. The product was dried using solar drier (40-60 C for 72 hours) and oven drier (60 C for 8 hours), and packaged in polypropylene bags prior to the analysis. Proximate analysis, pH, titratable acidity, fat acidity, water absorption and cooked paste viscosity were monitored over six months under tropical ambient conditions (28 C, RH 85-100%). Cowpea addition caused only minimal changes in the studied indices with the exception of protein content, which increased from 10.54-14.34% and 10.71-14.42% with 20% cowpea level, respectively, for the solar and oven-dried products. Likewise, no major changes in proximate composition were detected during storage. The product pH and fat acidity increased with concomitant decreases in titratable acidity in the stored samples. The pH levels increased from 4.67–5.18 and 4.13-4.71, respectively, in the solar-dried and oven-dried products within …

Rural Outreach Program

2007

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