Physicochemical and functional properties of different ackee (blighia sapida) aril flours

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2014-08-05
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Abstract
The ripe ackee (Blighia sapida) fruit arils are poorly exploited as food in Ghana and parts of West Africa. The goal of this research, therefore, was to investigate the potential of ackee aril flour for inclusion in the food basket by investigating the physicochemical and functional properties of different ackee aril flours and the effect the drying method or defatting had on these properties. Moisture, crude fat, crude protein, crude fibre, ash and carbohydrate content of the flours were in the range of 4.83 - 7.30 %, 21.42 - 59.54 %, 11.54 - 23.00 %, 3.83 - 4.08 %, 8.45 - 9.05 % and 15.13 - 42.48 % db, respectively. The flours also contained appreciable minerals (Ca, P, Mg, Na, K and Zn), with K (462.21 - 968.29 mg/100g) being the most abundant. The flour samples had functional properties ranging from 24.09 to 39.45 % solubility, 11.03 to 23.02 % swelling power, 111.75 to 139.57 % oil absorption capacity, 4.33 to 5.67 % foaming capacity, 76.34 to 84.35 % foam stability, 61.67 to 69.17 % emulsion capacity and 5.83 to 46.67 % emulsion stability. In general, defatted flours had higher proximate composition and functional properties than the full fat flours. Freeze-dried defatted flour (FDDF) had the highest proximate and mineral content whereas oven-dried defatted flour (ODDF) had highest functional properties investigated except for foam stability and swelling power. The results indicated that the drying method had significant effect (p < 0.05) on mineral composition as well as fat and carbohydrate content but not on the ash, protein, fibre contents or oil absorption capacity and foam stability of the flour samples. Also, with the exception of ash and fibre, the defatting was significant for all physicochemical properties investigated but not for functional properties such as foam capacity, foam stability or emulsion capacity of the ackee aril flours. The present findings suggest oven dried ackee aril flours as potential ingredients for food systems such as emulsions, processed meats, bakery or fried products.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Food Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of MSc, Food Science and Technology degree, 2014
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