QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF COMPOSITE FLOUR MADE FROM WHEAT AND PLANTAIN PEEL

Abstract

The need to find potential food uses of plantain peel, which is a major waste product of plantain fruits necessitated the development of flour blends using wheat flour and plantain peel. The plantain peel flour (PPF) was blended with wheat flour (WF) in the ratio of 100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30 and 0:100 of PPF and WF. The flour blends were analysed for proximate composition, functional properties, mineral composition and colour parameters. The results of the proximate composition ranged between 6.68 to 6.86%, 3.00 to 3.16%, 0.88 to 1.21%, 3.40 to 9.25%, 1.00 to 1.13% and 78.7 to 84.7% for moisture, ash, fat, protein, fibre and carbohydrates respectively. The Mineral composition of the samples ranged between 0.75 to 7.30 mg/g for Iron, 2.60 to 7.77 mg/g for Sodium, 1020.90 to 1044.10 mg/g for Potassium, 188.50 to 1917.80 mg/g for Magnesium, and 14.65 to 137.95 mg/g for Calcium. The results of the bulk density ranged from 0.57 to 0.76 g/ml, water absorption capacity ranged from 1.23 to 3.43 g/ml and the swelling capacity ranged from 1.25 to 2.16 g/ml. There was a significant decrease (p<0.05) in ‘L*’ (lightness), ‘a*’ (redness) and ‘b*’ (yellowness) with increase in the PPF. In conclusion, the results obtained showed a detectable amount of nutrients, significantly higher amount of minerals and functional properties that could favour industrial utilization. The excellent contribution of the plantain peel to the overall nutritional properties of the flour blends suggests the potential utilization of the peel as ingredients in food.