Nutrient And Sensory Properties Of Flour Blends From Fermented Sorghum (Sorghum Bicolor), Fermented Cowpea (Vigna Ungiculata) And Unripe Fresh Banana(Musa Acumunata).

* OLY-ALAWUBA, N.M. and ** NNAM, N.M
* Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria. [email protected],
07030459090.
** Department of Home Science, Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
[email protected], 08176149022.

ABSTRACT

The study examined the nutrient composition, sensory properties and acceptability of porridges made from blends of fermented sorghum, cowpea and fresh unripe banana flours. Sorghum grains were fermented for 24h, cowpea for 48h and banana were dried in a hot air oven at 550C to 96% dry matter and milled into fine flour (70mm mesh screen).
The flours were blended in ratios of 60:30:10, 50:30:20 and 40:40:20 (protein basis) of sorghum, cowpea and banana. The composites were used to prepare porridges. The porridges were chemically and organoleptically evaluated using standard methods. The nutrient contents of the porridges were compared with Nutrend, a commercial complementary food. The protein levels of the product ranged from 9.17 – 11.68%, carbohydrate 85.14 – 87.53% and fat 2.29-2.89% these values were comparable to that of Nutrend that has protein 16.67%, carbohydrate 66.43% and fat 9.38%, These products had reasonable levels of iron (14.51mg), zinc (19.45mg), calcium (6.34mg) and phosphorus (71.65mg). The products were acceptable to the judges. The organoleptic attributes of the products were comparable to those of Nutrend (P>0.05). The 50:30:20 blends (sorghum, cowpea and unripe banana) had greater acceptance over the other blends.