Quality Characteristic of Kunu Produced from Orange Fleshed Sweetpotato for Empowerment of Rural Women in Nigeria
Abstract
Kunu is a non-alcoholic beverage consumed in Nigeria, and originated from the northern part of the country. It is being hawked by mostly women to earn a living, and originally produced using grains like millet and sorghum. Following the popularization of orange fleshed sweet potato (OFSP), Kunu was produced using variety 440293 of OFSP obtained from National Root Crops Research Institute Umudike. The production of Kunu from orange fleshed sweet potato was done at different fermentation periods of 0 hrs (Sample A), 6 hrs (Sample B), and 12 hrs (Sample C). The biochemical, microbial, sensory characterizations and cost analysis were carried out. The results showed that β-carotene content of Kunu was still retained compared to the fresh tuber sample. The sensory evaluation showed that sample B and C were most preferred to sample A in general acceptability, however, sample A ranked highest in appearance. The microbial analysis revealed that the microbial load of Kunu was low with 1.01CFU/mL x 106, 1.03 CFU/mL x106 and 1.04 CFU/mL x106 for A, B and C respectively. The cost analyses showed that Kunu from OFSP would be helpful in improving the income of rural women in Northern Nigeria.
NAJ supports free online communication and exchange of knowledge as the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of research and development practice are made widely available. It is therefore committed to open access, which, for authors, enables the widest possible dissemination of their findings and, for readers, increases their ability to discover pertinent information. The Journal adopts and uses the CC: BY license and is open access. This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Copyright for articles published in this Journal is retained by the Journal.
