Optimization Method of Whole Wheat Flour, Soybean Flour, Oyster Meat Powder for Nutrient- Dense Composite Flour

Aim: To study the production of Nutrient – Dense Composite Flour from the blends of whole wheat flour, soybean flour (full fat) and oyster meat powder. Study Design: The study was design using the D-optimal combination design of Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at Department of Food, Nutrition and Home Science, University of Port Harcourt (Processing of raw materials) and the Department of Food Technology, Federal Institute of industrial research Oshodi, Lagos (Analysis of raw materials) between October 2021 and August 2022. Methodology: The raw materials were each processed to have wholesome flours, and then they were combined according to the matrix generated, which had ranges of 70 – 100%, 0 – 22%, and 0 – 8% for whole wheat flour (WWF), soybean flour (SBF) and oyster meat powder (OMP) respectively. Results: The design was used to assess the significance (5% probability) of the moisture, fat, and protein content, which ranged from 8.09 to 11.37%, 1.80 to 8.52% and 9.70 to 19.07% respectively; the water absorption (72.00 - 79.10BU), dough stability (9.3 - 17.5BU) and mixing tolerance index (25 - 50BU); and lightness and yellowness, which ranged from 65.48 - 83.2 and 13.77 - 23.58 respectively, of the flour blends. Protein content, water absorption dough stability, and mixing tolerance index were prioritized while moisture content, fat content, and yellowness were minimized for the numerical optimization of the responses. This study highlights the possibilities of utilizing non-conventional raw materials in the production of composite flour with balance nutritional and baking qualities. Conclusion: The best flour combination was 72.51% whole wheat flour, 19.63% soybean flour, and 7.86% oyster meat powder.

Colour Profile, Pasting and Sensory Properties of Processed Sweet Potato Flour

In this study, sweet potato was purchased and processed using different methods to obtain 4 different sweet potato flour samples. Sample A was unfermented sweet potato flour, sample B was fermented spontaneously, while sample C and D were produced by fermentation using indigenous starter cultures of lactic acid bacteria and yeast for 48 h and 72 h respectively. Colour profile, Pasting and Sensory evaluation was conducted. The whiteness (L* value) obtained in this study is within the range of value (87.29-89.52), Also, the redness value (a*) and yellowness value (b*) of the sweet potato flour samples also showed a significant difference (p<0.05). Sample a had a higher value when compared with samples B,C and D. Pasting properties such as peak viscosity, trough viscosity, breakdown viscosity, setback, pasting temperature were determined. It was noticed that fermentation process and increase in fermentation time significantly (p<0.05) decrease the peak viscosity in this research work and all samples had a higher cooled paste viscosity than their corresponding hot paste viscosity. Nevertheless, sensory evaluation was carried out using thet 9-point hedonic scale, samples A,B,C,D are significantly different (P < 0.05).