Effect of drying methods on the sorption isotherms of plantain flour

The demand for plantain flour has increased in recent years due to its health benefits and industrial applications, however, there is dearth of information on the effect of drying methods on the sorption isotherm of plantain flour. In the present study, moisture sorption properties for unripe plantain flour using four drying methods at temperatures 27 °C, 37 °C and 42 °C were determined for water activity 0.10 to 0.80. The data generated were modelled using Peleg, GAB, Oswin, BET and Langmuir. The results revealed that the Equilibrium Moisture Contents decreased with an increase in temperature at all the water activities considered. Also, moisture isotherms of the plantain flour were not significantly (p>0.05) affected by temperature. The coefficient of determination (R2) for the used models ranged from 0.640 and 0.986 and Peleg was the most appropriate for the adsorption isotherm of plantain flour out of all the models. The monolayer moisture content of the flour also showed that all the unripe plantain flours could be stored for longer periods at all the temperatures studied, as their Mo falls within acceptable range for storage

Response surface methodology for the optimization of process parameters during hot-air frying of chicken sausages incorporated with corn bran

<jats:p>Deep-fat frying is still a very popular food processing method among consumers of different age groups despite the negative health implications of consuming too much fat.</jats:p&gt

Quality attributes of cassava-fish crackers enriched with different flours: An optimization study by a simplex centroid mixture design

A simplex centroid mixture design (SCMD) was used to optimize ingredient combination comprising cassava starch (CS), high quality cassava flour (HQCF) and fish flour (FF) in the production of cassava-fish crackers. The standard slurry method was used and the effect of ingredient combination on some quality attributes of the crackers fried at 180 °C ± 5 °C for 15 s was investigated. Ingredient combination has a significant positive effect on oil and moisture contents, texture but expanded less. Increase in CS and FF resulted in decrease oil uptake while it increases with HQCF. Lightness decreased with increase in FF while redness and yellowness increases. Regression analyses indicated that the quadratic, cubic as well as special cubic nonlinear terms were significant (p < 0.05) in many of the models derived. Optimum ingredient mixture resulting in lower oil content and breaking force with maximum expansion and desirable physico-chemical properties was 85% CS, 10%HQCF and 5% FF