Proximate Composition, Microbial quality and consumer Acceptability of gruel from maize and soybeans

摘要: Gruel is an acid-fermented cereal food product mostly made from maize and wrapped in banana leaves. This study was aimed at producing an enriched gruel from maize by incorporating soybean. Maize and soybeans pastes were mixed in ratios of 100: 0, 90: 10, 80: 20, 70: 30, 60: 40 and 50: 50 to produce maize-soy gruel. Proximate, sensory and microbial analyses were carried out on the samples using standard methods. The proximate result shows that moisture content decreased from 35.22% in 100: 0 to 25.97% in 50: 50 maize-soy gruels. Protein content increased from 6.56% in 100: 0 to 14.84% and 16.75% in 60: 40 and 50: 50 maize-soy ratio respectively. The carbohydrate content decreased from 55.01% in 100: 0 to 47.92% in 60: 40 maize-soy ratios while the ash content, fat content and crude fiber content increased from 100: 0 maize to 50: 50 maize and soybeans with values of 1.21% to 3.77%, 1.25% to 4.88% and 0.74% to 2.71% respectively. The maize-soy of 100: 0 and 80: 20 were highly acceptable by the sensory evaluators whereas addition of soybeans up to levels above 20% affected the colour of the samples. The microbial load of the samples stored at room temperature increased with increasing soybeans composition with values ranging between 3.0 x 105 to 26.0 x 105 cfu/g for bacterial count and 4.0 x 105 to 24.0 x 105 cfu/g for mould count. This work has shown that maize-soy gruel will make a balanced meal that is affordable and acceptable to the consumers..