Effects of dehydration and soy fortification on physicochemical, nutritional and sensory properties of Ghanaian maize meal

Abstract

Fermented maize meal was air dried at 60°C and fortified with defatted soy flour at 0%, 10% and 20% replacement levels on dry basis. The effects on protein quality were determined by chick growth response studies and amino acid analysis, while sensory characteristics were evaluated by triangle and preference tests. Air drying did not affect chick growth response but slightly reduced preference of the meal. The drying caused only 6% and 16% losses in total and available lysine contents, respectively. Soy fortification of air-dried maize meal at 10% improved sensory preference to the same degree as freshly fermented meals and increased the protein quality significantly over both freeze-dried unfortified control and air-dried unfortified meals. Twenty percent soy fortified maize meal had low sensory score although the nutritive value was substantially increased