Some quality attributes of complementary food produced from flour blends of orange flesh sweetpotato, sorghum, and soybean

The study investigated the chemical, functional, and sensory attributes of orange flesh sweetpotato, sorghum, and soybean during storage. Orange flesh sweetpotato flour, sorghum flour, and soybean flour were blended together at four different ratios of 40:40:20, 30:50:20, 20:60:20, and 10:70:20, respectively, while 100% sorghum flour was used as control. The five flour blends were used to prepare complementary foods, and sensory attributes of foods were determined using a nine point hedonic scale. The flour blend with the highest overall acceptability score was packaged in a high density polyethylene bag and stored for the period of eight weeks. During storage, the functional properties and the chemical properties of the flour blend were determined every two weeks. The result obtained for the sensory properties of the complementary food shows that the sample 40:40:20 was accepted by the panellists. The functional properties of the blend during storage ranged from 0.57 to 0.60 g/mL, 69 to 86%, 3.74 to 4.19 g/g, 2.82 to 3.12%, and 77.50 to 94.50% for bulk density, dispersibility, swelling power, solubility, and water absorption capacity, respectively, while the chemical analysis ranged from 7.11 to 9.40%, 1.02 to 3.59% and 0.05 to1.28 meq/kg for moisture, free fatty acids, and peroxide value, respectively. The study showed that the flour blend of 40:20:40 had the most preferred functional properties and complementary food produced from it had best attributes in terms of taste, colour, viscosity, and overall acceptability