Nutritional assessment of instant poundo flour from blends of yam and unripe plantain flour

Instant pounded yam dough obtained from yam flour is an emerging alternative to pounding boiled yams. Incorporating unripe plantain four into it becomes necessary to obtain an enriched meal for a better and healthier diet option. This study therefore investigated the nutritional compositions of yam and unripe plantain flour blends and the sensory attributes of instant poundo yam made from the blends (100:00, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40, and 50:50) of yam to unripe plantain flour respectively. The blends were analyzed for proximate, vitamins, minerals and functional properties. Data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance, and means were separated using Duncan’s New Multiple Range (DNMR) Test at a significant level of p<0.05 with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25.0. Protein, moisture, fat, crude fibre, ash and carbohydrate contents ranged from 3.36 to 5.98%, 5.10 to 6.50%, 0.25 to 0.40%, 0.41 to 0.72%, 1.83 to 3.00%, and 84.80 to 86.99%, respectively. Vitamin composition were observed to be in the ranges of 0.26 to 0.28 mg/100g, 0.56 to 0.58 mg/100g and 6.83 to 8.27 mg/100g for vitamins B₁, B₂ and C, respectively. Mineral composition ranged from 91.0 to 105.33mg/100g for phosphorus, 285.80 to 346.98mg/100g for potassium, 129.85 to 157.65mg/100g for magnesium and 238.16 to 289.15mg/100g for calcium. Functional properties values ranged from 124.0 to 135.0%, 0.76 to 0.95% and 7.61 to 9.77% for water absorption capacity, bulk density and swelling capacity, respectively. The instant poundo yam samples were favourably compared with control from 100% yam flour by the panelists in terms of mouldability, texture, colour, taste, odour and overall acceptability. The result showed that the sample with 50% unripe plantain flour substitution was the most preferred in all the attributes tested except mouldability. This study concluded that instant pound flour made from blends of yam and unripe plantain flour has the potential of producing an enriched and more acceptable meal.