Nutritional, anti-nutritional, and sensory properties of cowpea hull-enriched <em>Gari</em>

Abstract

In continuous search for solutions to malnutrition, mainly prevalent among the people of developing countries, various views have been expressed regarding the necessity to improve the nutritional quality of indigenous foods such as gari through better processing and enrichment with cheap and readily available plant materials such as cowpea hull. Gari was produced using the traditional method and enriched with freshly produced cowpea hull in dry form to improve the nutritional composition. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of stages of inclusion of cowpea hull on some quality attributes of gari. Factorial design of 2 stages of inclusion (before and after fermentation) with 4 levels (0 %, 3 %, 5 % and 7 %) of cowpea hull treatments and standard methods were used to analyze the enriched gari (EG). The results of the proximate analysis of gari revealed that as inclusion level increases crude fibre, ash and crude protein contents increased in the fermented EG. Enrichment caused a significant (p<0.05) increase in the minerals and the amino acid profile compared to the control while fermentation caused a significant increase in vitamins content of EG. The titratable acidity of the EG may be linked to the increase in amino acid content of the samples, and pH ranged from 3.87 to 3.99. Fermentation of the cowpea hulls with cassava mash significantly enhanced the sensory characteristics and make them acceptable than their unfermented counterpart. Based on the results, it is recommended to enrich gari by incorporating 7% cowpea hull that have undergone fermentation with cassava mash.