Production and evaluation of breakfast meal using blends of sorghum, bambara nut and date palm fruit flour

Breakfast meals are described as any food obtained with or without supplementation through swelling, roasting, grinding, rolling, or flaking of any cereal. This study is aimed to produce and evaluate the functional, pasting, proximate composition and sensory properties of a breakfast meal made from blends of sorghum, bambara and date flours. Gruels were made using composite flour (450 μm) in ratio of 80:15:5, 70:20:10, 60:25:5 and 100:0:0 for sorghum, bambara and date palm respectively. Samples were assessed for functional, pasting, proximate and sensory properties using standard procedures. Data were analyzed using ANOVA at p = 0.05. The functional properties of the flour blends were significantly (p = 0.05) affected by the increasing level of supplementation of bambara and date palm flour. There was a decrease in gelatinization temperature and viscosity as the level of supplementation of bambara nut and date palm flours increased. The gruel from 100% sorghum flour (control) had the highest pasting properties. Proximate composition of the gruels was as follows: moisture, 10.79-9.22%; crude protein, 4.50-10.37%; crude fat, 1.56-2.12%; ash, 2.86-1.76%; crude fibre, 0.10-0.88% and carbohydrate, 80.33-75.15%. Samples made from 60:25:15 flour blends showed significantly (p = 0.05) highest sensory qualities while gruel from 100% sorghum was lowest. The use of bambara nut and date palm fruits at various substitution levels in the formulation of sorghum breakfast gruel significantly (p = 0.05) enhanced their quality characteristics.