A two year seasonal survey of the quality of shea butter produced in Niger state of Nigeria

Low quality of shea butter has continued to be a major challenge in the shea tree value chain. The quality and identity characteristics of market-ready shea butter produced by family-based processors, the highest contributors to the butter output in Nigeria were studied using standard methods of analysis for two consecutive fruiting years to ascertain the consistency in quality status. This was with the view to determining the suitable market segment the butter could serve. The result generally show significant inconsistencies in both quality and identity parameters within and among the villages and zones studied for the two years. The free fatty acid (ffa), acid value, peroxide value, anisidine value, iodine value, moisture, dirt unsaponifiable matter, saponification value ranged from 5.40±0.14 to 13.45±0.44, 10.50±0.22 to 27.06±0.04, 3.50±0.02 to11.17±0.06, 1.72±0.03 to 4.75±0.08, 38.67±0.68 to 60.37±0.57, 0.56±0.02 to 0.40±0.03, 0.86±0.04 to 1.72±0.01, 5.90±0.04 to 9.27±0.06, 193.0±0.72 to 224.67±0.67 while in the second year, the range were correspondingly 5.26±0.05 to 10.13±0.06, 9.19±0.05 to 20.17±0.12, 2.24±0.01 to 8.07±0.08, 2.08±0.25 to 5.03±0.0.2, 36.97±0.21 to 60.57±0.42, 0.21±0.02 to 0.84±0.03, 0.50±0.03 to 1.46±0.03, 6.60±0.10 to 10.09±0.11 and 189.07±2.06 to 236.5±0.66.  The mean values computed for the villages did not approximate the data obtained by pooling and analysing the samples from the respective zones very well. The present status of the butter quality did not describe a particular trend and only suits the local market. Key words: Fat, shea butter, quality parameters, Vitelleria paradoxa.