Development of nutritional meals and gruels from blends of pro-vitamin a cassava grits and African yam

The potentials of underutilized African yam bean (AYB) and pro-vitamin A cassava in the development of nutritious food products with acceptable sensory properties were studied.  Grits were produced from freshly harvested yellow root pro-vitamin A cassava by peeling, washing, cutting, soaking, dewatering, roasting, sieving, and milling to obtain yellow root cassava grits while AYB flour was obtained by cleaning, roasting, dehulling, milling, and sieving (425 µm). A simple lattice design was used to obtain formulations of blends (100:0; 90:10; 80:20; 70:30; 60:40 and 0:100) of yellow root cassava grits and AYB flour.  Gruels were prepared from these formulations using 4:5 w/v in boiling water while meals were prepared using 1:1 w/v of blend in boiling water for 5 min. Moisture, fat, ash, protein, crude fibre, carbohydrate, β-carotene and calorific content of the blends were in the ranges of 4.66 – 7.92%, 2.20 – 2.82%, 2.16 – 2.66%, 2.72 – 20.43%, 1.15 – 1.40%, 68.65 – 83.23%, 1.33 to 3.97 μg/g and 348.37 – 358.96 kcal/100 g, respectively. Saponin, tannin, trypsin inhibitor, hemagglutinin, starchyose, raffinose, phytate and Hydrogen Cyanide ranged from 0.039 – 0.087%, 0.11 – 0.15%, 1.24 – 3.15 mg/g, 1.47 – 3.49 mg/100 g, 1.51 – 1.81%, 0.38 – 0.45%, 0.82 – 2.69 mg/g, 0.07 – 4.47 mg/kg, respectively. The sensory evaluation revealed that the meal and the gruel samples had acceptable sensory attributes. The developed products have the potentials in alleviating the problem of protein malnutrition in developing countries.