Sensory, chemical and nutritional evaluation of flour blends for preparation of stiff dough

One of the nutritional advantages of flour blend is to promote the nutritional composition of indigenous crops for food application. This study utilized, African yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa) and unripe plantain (Musa paradisca) to create flour blends at different ratios of 100:0 (GAB), 90:10 (ORE), 80:20 (TAM), 70:30 (MFY), 60:40 (MED) and 50:50 (KSK). These blends were subjected to calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium; pasting; anti-nutritional factors and colour using Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The blends were made into pastes [stiff dough (amala)] and subjected to sensory evaluation. Nutritionally derived essential elements such as calcium (0.01-0.02), iron (0.08-0.35), magnesium (0.11-0.18) and potassium (0.83-1.30) contents increased with increase in the addition of African yam bean flour. Composite flours showed improved chromaticity in the unripe plantain flour. The peak (1733-4205), trough (1609-3199), breakdown (124-1007), final viscosity (2246-4901) and setback (63-1703) decreased while peak time (5.07-5.90) and pasting temperature (79.80-83.70) increased as African yam bean flour increases. MFY blend from blends performed best in overall acceptability but there was no significant difference (p>0.05) among other samples. Results from this study have further shown the possibility of enhancing the nutritional composition of stiff dough (Amala) using African yam bean and unripe plantain flours.