Industrial manufacture of sugar-free chocolates: applicability of alternative sweeteners and carbohydrate polymers as raw materials in product development

Chocolate is dense suspension of solid particles comprising 60-70% sugar and non-fat cocoa solids. Until recently, it was rarely produced as a sugar-free product due to the multi-functional properties of sweetness, bulkiness and textural characteristics that sugar offers to products. Today's consumers are concerned about the high sugar levels, calories and cariogenicity effects in confectionery products, hence increasing popularity of 'light' and 'sugar-free' products. Development of sugar-free chocolates is most challenging since all sugar needs to be replaced. In-depth understanding of the applicability of alternative sweeteners and carbohydrate polymers as ingredients in sugar-free chocolate manufacture would therefore have significant industrial applications

Does the Public Procurement Law of Ghana Promote Accountability? Matters Arising from an Empirical Research

Models of public procurement accountability properties were used to analyse the contents of the Public Procurement Law of Ghana (Act 663, 2003) to determine the presence of such properties in it. The findings on the existence of such properties were used to test the capacity of the law to ensure accountability in the public procurement system of Ghana. It was concluded that, the Act has the properties of a standard law designed to ensure accountability in the public procurement system although some limitations of the law with regards to its capacity to ensure public procurement accountability have been identified for improvement. It therefore becomes imperative for the review of the law on public procurement in Ghana so that it can enable better accountability. This paper builds upon an earlier report on the transparency assuring capabilities of the Public Procurement Law of Ghana. Keywords: Public Procurement Accountability, Public Procurement Accountability Propertie

The Antecedents and the Prospects of Public Procurement Regulation in Ghana

The development of Public Procurement regulation in Ghana culminating into the promulgation of the Public Procurement Act 663 has been traced in this paper. In 2003, Ghana promulgated the Act 663 to tackle public procurement corruption among other objectives. By means of a content analysis, a critical analysis of the Act 663 has been offered and a few changes have been suggested to improve its comprehensiveness, its capacity to ensure Transparency; its properties for Good management; its capacity to prevent misconduct, enable compliance and monitoring and its capacity to ensure Accountability, control and anti-corruption properties. Keywords: Public Procurement Reform, Public Procurement Regulation, Crown Agent

How Relevant is the Principle of Transparency in Public Procurement?

Transparency in governance in general, and in public procurement in particular, has become the focus of lawmakers and civil society in preventing corruption among other objectives. In this paper, the relevance of the principle of transparency in public procurement has been espoused using a framework of definitions and reviews of purpose and importance of public procurement transparency. Specifically, the agency theory has been deployed to explain the purpose and importance of public procurement transparency. Through this the centrality of the principle in the fight against public procurement corruption has been confirmed. Although this essay espouses the position that there cannot be corruption-free procurement system without transparency, it has been argued that, despite its importance and attempts at legislating for it by many regimes, there have been difficulties in practice at achieving complete transparency. Keywords: Public Procurement Transparency, Why Public Procurement Transparency? Transparency and Corruption

Protecting Auditor Independence by Means of Company Law: The Case of the Companies Code of Ghana

A content analysis of the Companies Code (Act 179 of 1963) of Ghana has been used to determine the extent to which company law in Ghana protects the auditor’s independence. It was determined that the present law, the Companies Code, does not make adequate provision to protect Auditor independence in Ghana. The practical implication of this finding is that the law relating to company audits in Ghana requires an update to strengthen the auditor’s independence in Ghana. The value of this paper lies in its contribution to the debate on auditor independence and how it can be improved under a reviewed Companies code of Ghana. Key words: Audit, Audit independence, Agency problem, Peer Review, Auditor Rotatio

How the Ghanaian Public Procurement Law Ensures Transparency: The Reminisces from an Empirical Research

Templates populated with public procurement transparency indicators were used to collect data to analyse the contents of the Public Procurement Law of Ghana (Act 663, 2003) for the presence of such indicators in it. The findings on the presence of such indicators were used to assess the Ghanaian public procurement law as a promoter of public procurement transparency. It was found out that the Act exhibits a great deal of properties that make it capable of ensuring transparency in the public procurement system of Ghana. However, a few shortcomings in the law with regards to its capacity to ensure transparency were identified leaving room for improvement in some areas. The implication of this is that the legal framework for doing procurement business for the government of Ghana will benefit from some changes to enable it to ensure better transparency. Keywords: Public procurement transparency, Public procurement law, Public procurement regulation, Public procurement reforms, Public procurement corruptio

Gender Inequality in the Usage of ICT Facilities in Academic Libraries: A Case Study of Presbyterian University College Library (PUCL), Ghana

The purpose of the study was to find out gender inequality in the use of ICT facilities in the library among male and female students in the Presbyterian University College of Ghana-Asante Akyem Campus. It was a case study which adopted the survey approach with questionnaires as the data collection instrument to solicit the opinions of both genders. The findings disclosed that ICT facilities are available in the library and a significant number of both genders have access to the facilities. However, there were slight variations in the use of the facilities in some domain.Poor internet services as well as inadequate power supply were identified as significant challenges that impeded the use of ICT facilities in the library; therefore, it is recommended that measures should be put in place to avoid persistent power failure in the library. Lastly, the management of the university should acquire bigger broadband to improve the internet service in the library. Keywords: Asante Akyem, Gender, Ghana, ICT facilities, Inequality, Presbyterian, Students, University College. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-25-06 Publication date:September 30th 201

Gender Inequality in the Usage of ICT Facilities in Academic Libraries: A Case Study of Presbyterian University College Library (PUCL), Ghana

The purpose of the study was to find out gender inequality in the use of ICT facilities in the library among male and female students in the Presbyterian University College of Ghana-Asante Akyem Campus-Ghana. It was a case study which adopted the survey approach with questionnaires as the data collection instrument to solicit the opinions of both genders. The findings disclosed that ICT facilities are available in the library and a significant number of both genders have access to the facilities. However, there were slight variations in the use of the facilities in some domain.Poor internet services, as well as inadequate power supply, were identified as significant challenges that impeded the use of ICT facilities in the library; therefore, it is recommended that measures should be put in place to avoid persistent power failure in the library. Lastly, management of the university should acquire bigger broadband to improve the internet service in the library. Keywords: Asante Akyem, Gender, Ghana, ICT facilities, Inequality, Presbyterian, Students, University College. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-2-0

The influence of blanching, anti-browning agent and processing time on some physico-chemical properties and appearance of green peppers (Capsicum sinensis) during canning

Central Composite Rotatable Design (CCRD) was used to generate twenty combinations of these factors: blanching time, processing time and sodium metabisulphite concentration. The optimized conditions were then adapted for the canning process of green pepper. Blanching time ranged from 0-1 min whereas processing time and sodium metabisulphite concentration ranged from 10-30 min and 0-0.2%, respectively. The canned products were analyzed for physico-chemical qualities using standard analytical methods. Results obtained from various physico-chemical analyses showed variable trends and influences of the linear, quadratic and exponential interactions on the measured quality indices such as pH of the drained liquid, drained weight of the canned product, leached solids and colour of the canned products. The results showed significant (p.0.05) quadratic effect of sodium metabisulphite as well as linear effect of blanching time on the drained weight of the canned green pepper. Generally, the pH of the medium decreased (increased acidity) with increasing processing time, which was also positively associated with the extent or amount of leaching. Additionally, all three factors were observed to have affected (to variable extent) the colour of the canned products. Blanching and processing times also affected the degree of browning. There was a strong significant (p.0.05) influence of the quadratic factors of blanching time, processing time and sodium metabisulphite concentration on the colour properties (a-values, b-values and L-values) of the canned products. Statistical analysis showed significant (p.0.05) linear effects of blanching time and sodium salt concentration as well as the combined effect of both factors on all the colour properties. All the studied parameters had significant  regression coefficients (p.0.05) suggesting the studied parameters  contributed significantly to the observed changes. Colour of the canned  products changed from green toward redness with increasing blanching time at all concentrations of sodium metabisulphite. Optimal processing  combination of 0 min blanching time, 10 min processing time and sodium metabisulphite concentration of 0.2% produced a highly acceptable canned pepper product with preferred physico-chemical and appearance properties.Key words: Canning, pepper, blanching, antibrowning agent

Influence of fermentation and cowpea steaming on some quality characteristics of maize-cowpea blends

Fermentation and cowpea steaming can be used to improve the protein quality and quantity of fermented maize dough. In the production of maize-cowpea blends, it is important that the quality characteristics are evaluated to determine their functionality in the products. A 5x4x2x2factorial experiment with cowpea level, fermentation time, cowpea steaming time and fermentation method as the variable was performed. The cowpeas were dehulled, steamed, dried at 65EC for 24 hours and milled into flours. Maize was soaked in water (18 hours), drained and milled into flour. The maize-cowpea blends were made into a 50% moisture dough, fermented for the specified periods, dried at 65EC and milled into flour. Samples were evaluated for pH, titratable acidity, water absorption and sugars. The pH and titratable acidity of the samples were affected by fermentation time, steaming time, and the levels of cowpeas in the blend. Cowpeas was the main source of glucose/galactose.Fermentation caused a reduction in stacchyose and glucose/galactose. The mixing of cowpea flour with fermented maize dough prior to drying (single component fermentation) gave similar effects on sugar concentrations as detected in the co-fermented samples (multi-component fermentation).Fermentation and steamed cowpea fortification can be used to produce high protein fermented cereal foods with reduced anti-nutritional factors