Quality evaluation of <i>Gurundi</i> produced from flour blends of yellow flesh cassava, wheat and pigeonpea

Abstract

Gurundi is a popular wheat-based snack among school-age children. An acceptable gurundifrom a blend of wheat flour (WF) and pigeonpea flour (PPF) of 90:10 ratio had been reported in the literature. This study investigated the effects of yellow flesh cassava on pigeon peasupplemented gurundi. Gurundiwas produced from composite blends of yellow flesh cassava flour (YFC), WF and PPF (YFC:WF:PPF) ratios of 50:40:10, 60:30:10, 70:20:10, 80:10:10, and 90:0:10. Gurundifrom 100% WF served as the control. The functional properties, proximate composition, and anti-nutritional factors of the flour blends, and sensory properties of gurundi were determined using standard methods. The functional properties of the blends varied between 0.65 and 0.80 g/ml for bulk density, 56.21 and 75.83% for dispersibilty, 5.07-7.80 g/g for swelling power, 0.54-1.35 ml/g for water absorption, and 0.72-0.83 ml/g for oil absorption capacity. Except for bulk density, significant (p<0.005) differences were observed in the functional attributes of the flour blends. The fat and protein contents of the flour blends which respectively ranged from 7.8-11.9% and 2.6-4.5% decreased while the ash (1.95-3.10%) and crude fibre (2.9-6.6%) increased as YFC level increased. The antinutrient contents of the blends ranged from 0.6-0.93 mg/100g, 0.48-1.01 mg/100g, 0.19-0.45 mg/100g, and 0.05-0.37 mg/100g for tannin, phytate, oxalate and hydrogen cyanide, respectively. Gurundifrom the composite blends had better sensory attributes than control. However, gurundifrom 80% YFC, 10% WF and 10% PPF had the highest overall acceptability.