Effect of Refrigerated Storage on the Quality Assessment, Antioxidant and Sensory Compositions of Functional “OGI” Enriched with Dietary Tigernut (Cyperus esculentus L) Fiber Emulsion

Abstract

“Ogi” is a porridge prepared from fermented maize, sorghum or millet in West Africa and very popular breakfast cereal and infant weaning food in Nigeria. The study aimed at investigating the effect of refrigerated temperature on some quality properties of ogi. The dietary tigernut fiber and “ogi” were prepared using standard methods. The dietary tigernut fiber was added to the “ogi” at different proportions (5 %, 10 %, 15 % and 20 %). Proximate, pH, total titratable acidity, antioxidant and sensory characteristics of the enriched ogi during four weeks refrigerated storage were assessed. The fat content of “ogi” increased with increasing tiger nuts fiber and storage periods of four weeks with the values ranged from (5.30 to 10.12 %), (5.30 to 11.45 %), (6.33 to 14.45 %), (6.53 to 16.34 %). The same trend of increase were observed for protein content of the enriched “ogi” with values of (8.90 to 17.01 %), (10.90 to 17.89 %), (10.93 to 18.88 %) and (10.99 to 19.86 %) for weeks one to four. The fiber content also concomitantly increased with inclusion of tigernut fiber and storage periods (0.90 to 1.97 %) and (1.09 to 3.43 %) for weeks one and four. The DPPH scavenging radical activity and total flavonoids of the samples increased as the storage periods increases. The sensory results showed that O80TG20 and O70TG30 with moderate percentage of 20 % inclusion of tiger nut fiber were more acceptable by the panelists. The study established that ogi enriched with tiger nut fiber could serve as a cheap functional food recipe with high nutrient and antioxidant qualities, hence can be considered as nutritional intervention in the management and control of oxidative stress diseases in human.