ABSTRACT Functional foods are foods that possess other health benefits apart from their regular nutritional benefits. A functional food may contain nutraceutical properties, which have components, responsible for curing or preventing a disease or disorder. There are several indigenous foods in Ghana that have been purported to possess functional properties. The claim to functionality of some of these indigenous foods are based on folklore but the scientific backing to these claims may not be ...
ABSTRACT A study was made of the effect on pepper quality of the traditional method of processing the "Balancotta" variety of Piper nigrum (black pepper). The study comparatively considered the microbiological quality, drying method, drying rate, colour and appearance, washing or cleaning method, prior to fermentation or heaping as well as an alternative method - heat treatment processing of the commodity. Using a solar dryer as a drying apparatus resulted in 9.8% moisture content of the samp...
ABSTRACT Peanuts are very nutritious oil seeds grown worldwide but are however susceptible to aflatoxin contamination through the infestation of aflatoxigenic molds. These aflatoxins are known to have carcinogenic effects on humans and animals. There is therefore the need to put in measures to ensure that excessive levels of aflatoxins are reduced to the barest minimum in peanuts and peanut products to conform to the requirements of food safety regulations. The objectives of this study were t...
ABSTRACT This study was aimed at constituting nutritious home-made weaning meals, using local foods that would curtail malnutrition among pre-school children and facilitate a smooth transition from breast milk and cereal porridges to adequate post weaning food consumption. Nine weaning meals were formulated. Three meals each were formulated using comdough, commeal and yam as staple. To one meal in each group of 3 meals, cowpeas, fish or melonseeds were added as the effective source of protein...
ABSTRACT There is an increasing demand for variety in food products, mankind rely on very limited number of crops to meet the needs of staple diets on a very limited number of major non-food crops to meet the associated needs, the functionality of wheat-morama bean composite flour for food applications was thus investigated. Morama bean (Tylosema esculentum) was shelled and milled into flour. Part of the morama bean flour was defatted using n-hexane. Wheat flour (both hard and soft) was subst...
ABSTRACT Peanut soup is very popular in Ghana and the entire West Africa region. It is largely prepared and consumed both at the domestic and commercial scales. Due to the long and tedious nature of preparing the soup, there was the need to develop a shelf stable condensed canned peanut soupbase which could be reconstituted to create convenience in peanut soup preparation. Previous work/studies done established a process flow chart for the canned peanut soup-base through selection of suitable...
ABSTRACT The demand for convenience, instant breakfast foods has resulted in importations and some local production of expensive products. Since these are generally high carbohydrate foods, exploring and diversifying the use of underutilized local food resources could provide inexpensive and interesting alternatives. This study investigated the use of locally abundant roots and tuber crops to partially substitute maize as the sole carbohydrate in the production of ready-to-eat breakfast foods...
ABSTRACT Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a public health problem in Ghana, leading to blindness. Year-round access to Vitamin Arich foods will curb its incidence. This study sought to identify appropriate processing, preservation and fortification methods to enhance E-carotene retention in foods towards VAD alleviation. Carrots were steamed, blanched in water, NaHS03, NaCl or alkali rocksalt (Kanwa) solutions. Amaranthus and Xanthosoma leaves were blanched in a range of kanwa solutions (0-0.1%)...
ABSTRACT Cocoa beans are the main ingredient for making chocolate and in Ghana, it is a major contributor to the economy as it generates an annual foreign exchange of about US $2 billion. The ability to produce high quality cocoa beans free from moulds and mycotoxin contamination has therefore become critical due to the impact mycotoxins have on health of consumers and global trade. This study investigated changes in fungal growth, mycotoxin concentrations, physico-chemical properties and coc...
ABSTRACT Nutritional quality of market samples of some fruit drinks were assessed through laboratory analysis. The assessment covered the determination of quality parameters of six brands of fruits drinks which include California brands of orange and pineapple drinks, orange and pineapple fruta drinks and 5 – alive orange and pineapple drinks. The assessment indices included the determination of proximate compositions, mineral composition and vitamin composition of the drinks. From the re...
ABSTRACT Some selected tropical root and stem tubers (cassava, cocoyam, sweet potato and yam) were dried and processed into flours. The cassava tuber was processed into flour using the high quality grading method. Bambara groundnut was processed to obtain the conventional bambara groundnut flour, bambara groundnut cotyledon flour and the steamed bambara groundnut cotyledon flour. Composite flours were formulated using each of the root tubers and each of the bambara groundnut treatments in th...
ABSTRACT The antimicrobial activities and preservative potentials of crude plant extracts of stem bark of Alstonia boonei, leaves of Euphorbia hirta and seeds of Moringa oleifera were studied. Soxhlet extraction method and cold ethanol extraction method were used for the extraction of the dried and ground plant samples. The well in agar diffusion method was used for the antibacterial screening at different concentrations of 25mg/ml, 50mg/ml, 100mg/ml and 200mg/ml on Eschericia coli, Bacillus...
ABSTRACT Cowpeas are a relatively inexpensive source of proteins and vitamin B. Unfortunately, the problem of insect infestation is one of the main constraints to the efficient and widespread utilisation of cowpeas. The hydrothermal treatment which involves the exposure of cowpeas to steam followed by drying has been used effectively in protecting cowpeas against the insect infestations. This study set out to assess the functional, chemical and textural changes associated with the hydrotherma...
ABSTRACT Miso is a semi-solid fermented food made commonly in Japan from soybeans alone or from a mixture of soybeans and rice or barley. This was a study to determine the suitability of local grain-legumes in the production of miso-\ke products. A traditional two-step fermentation process was adapted to process peanuts, cowpea and soybeans into the mso-like products. Three products were formulated with the legume combinations of peanut-cowpea, peanut-soybean and cowpea-soybean in ratios of ...
ABSTRACT Cocoa beans are the main ingredient for making chocolate and in Ghana, it is a major contributor to the economy as it generates an annual foreign exchange of about US $2 billion. The ability to produce high quality cocoa beans free from moulds and mycotoxin contamination has therefore become critical due to the impact mycotoxins have on health of consumers and global trade. This study investigated changes in fungal growth, mycotoxin concentrations, physico-chemical properties and co...