Production and Evaluation of Ready to Eat Soup Balls from Egusi, Egusi- Kirikiri, Sesame Seed and Groundnut

The aim of this work is to produce ready to eat soup balls from some oil seeds. Soup balls were produced from “egusi” seeds (Citrullus vulgaris), “egusi kirikiri” seeds (Colocynthis citrullus L), sesame seeds (Sesamum indicum) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea). The soup balls were dried to constant moisture content before packaging. The proximate composition of the soup balls were determined. The soup balls were used to prepare soups and sensory evaluation conducted. The microbial properties of the soup balls were determined after production and after twenty eight days of storage. The moisture content of the soup balls were between 4.4% to 5.5% which showed that they will maintain longer shelf- life. The protein contents though significantly different (p< 0.05) were high between 23.89% and 40.91%, which showed that the soup balls can compliment meat in soups. The overall acceptability results showed significant differences (p< 0.05) between soup balls produced from “egusi” and sesame seeds. Total viable count and fungal count of the soup balls after twenty eight days of storage were all below 106 CFU/g and no coli form was detected