African Journal of Food Science Research

Abioye, V.F

Department of Food Science and Engineering, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

‘Ogi’ was produced from yellow variety of maize to obtain a fermented gruel from ogi and the effect of moringa leaves fortification on the nutritional value and the sensory properties of yellow maize-ogi was investigated. The moringa leaf powder was substituted into yellow maize-ogi in these formulations; 100:0, 90:10 and 85:15. The effects of the moringa leaves powder substitution on the proximate content, mineral content, beta- carotene, swelling capacity and the sensory properties were determined. The sample with 15% moringa leaf substitution had about 95% increases in protein content. The crude fibre and ash contents increased from 2.33 and 1.75% to 3.57 and 2.33% with sample substituted with 15% moringa leaf having the highest. There was increase in the values of the mineral contents of the ogi samples with increase in the level of moringa leaf substitution; calcium content increased from 136.0 to 466.0 mg/100 g; magnesium from 31.67 to 123.00 mg/100 g; iron increased from 5.23 to 14.77 mg/100 g; potassium from 33.33 to 215.00 mg/100g; zinc from 0.20 to 0.73 mg/100 g and copper from 0.27 to 0.60 mg/100 g. Beta –carotene of 1126.67 µg/100 g was obtained with 15% moringa leaf substitution. The swelling capacity decreased with increase in the level of moringa leaf substitution.  This study revealed that fortification of ogi with moringa leaves at 10% improved the nutritional quality of ogi and was still generally acceptable.

Key words: Maize, yellow maize-ogi, substitution, moringa leaves, fortification.