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Effect of Spices and different Packaging Materials on acceptability and shelf-life of “moin-moin” made from Cowpea (<i.Vigna unguiculata </i>L.)


GC Omeire
IA Nwabunwanne

Abstract

Objective: The effect of spices (ginger, garlic and nutmeg) as preservatives and use of different packaging materials (aluminium foil, polythene and leaves) in preserving “moin-moin” were investigated.
Subjects/Materials and Methods: The samples of the “moin-moin” were prepared with different concentrations (1,2,3)g of the spices in 250ml of the “moin moin” slurry and packaged in different packaging materials. The controls that contained no spices were also prepared with the different packaging materials. The samples were steamed for one hour and then allowed to cool to ambient temperature (30-32ºC) and stored for 3 days. Sensory evaluation and microbiological analysis were carried out on the samples.
Results:The microbiological analysis revealed that samples without spices had higher counts of mesophilic bacteria. It was observed that samples with ginger and nutmeg were most accepted, but those with 1g of ginger and 2g of nutmeg wrapped with leaves were most preferred. In terms of overall acceptance, sample CGi1 (that contained 1g of ginger), sample CN2 (that contained 2g of nutmeg) and sample CN1 (that contained 1g of nutmeg) all had mean score of 5.7 were wrapped with leaves and were significantly different at P<0.05 from the others wrapped with polythene or aluminium foil. Also sample wrapped with leaves were significantly different at P<0.05 from the other samples wrapped with polythene and foil in terms of taste which was attributed to the pleasant taste added by the leaf.
Conclusion: Packaging materials and addition of spices had positive effect on the organoleptic properties and shell- life of the “moin-moin” samples.

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eISSN: 2805-4008
print ISSN: 0189-0913