Effect of pretreatments on the microbial and sensory quality of weaning food produced from blends of sorghum and soybean

This study investigated the effect of pre-treatment on the microbial and sensory quality of weaning foods produced from blends of sorghum and soybean. Sorghum and soybean were fermented, roasted and fermented/roasted, then milled into flours. Untreated sorghum and soybean flours were also produced separately and serve as the control. A portion of sorghum was malted and milled to obtain malted sorghum flour of which 5% was added to each sample except the control samples. Weaning foods were prepared in the following ratios: (75:20:5), (65:30:5) and (55:40:5) of sorghum: soybean: malt for the treated samples and the control samples contained (80:20), (70:30) and (60:40) of untreated sorghum : soybean. The microbial and sensory qualities of the samples were determined. The result of the microbial analysis of the formulated weaning food blends showed that all samples indicated a safety for consumption. The appearance of both treated and untreated were not significantly different (p<0.05) while the means scores of the blends in texture, taste, aroma and overall acceptability were significantly different (p<0.05). Fermentation and roasting used in this study showed that the processing methods had marked effect on the microbial and sensory quality of the weaning foods produced, thus, its recommendation for domestic processing of weaning foods.   Key words: Pretreatments, weaning food, sorghum, soybean, microbial and sensory qualities.