Organoleptic Characterization of Meal (Swallow) Made From Tigernuts Flour: Prognosis for Healthy Food Consumption among Nigerian Families

Abstract

This study explore the organoleptic characteristics of meal (swallow) made from Tigernuts flour as prognosis for healthy consumption in Nigeria. The study adopted experimental research design. Sensory Evaluation Sheet (SES) was designed and used to elicit responses from selected staff and students of Federal College of Education Technical Akoka, Lagos. The population for the study comprised all staff and students of School of Vocational Education totaling one hundred and thirty (130) as at 2022/2023 academic session. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select 60 trained panelists from the study population. Sensory Evaluation sheet (SES) structured on a 9-point Hedonic scale and validated by experts was the only instrument for data collection. Three coded samples; TM 20 (Meal made from 100% Tigernut flour), TM 21 (Meal made from 70% Tigernut flour and 30% Rice flour) and TM 22 (Meal made from 50% Tigernut flour and 50% Rice flour) were served with “Ogbono” soup to all the sensory panelists. Data analysis employed the use of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) run on SPSS package. The result obtained showed that there is a statistically significant difference at (P‹0.05) in the mean overall likeness of the Tigernut meal samples. In order to locate the exact difference between the meals samples, Tukey post hoc test was conducted which showed that sample TM 22 (Meal made from 50% Tigernut flour and 50% Rice flour) with sig. value of 0.874 is significantly different from sample TM 20 (Meal made from 100% Tigernut flour) with sig. value of 0.23 and sample TM 21 (Meal made from 70% Tigernut flour and 30% Rice flour) with sig. value of 0.23. By implication, the judges generally prefer TM 22 (Meal made from 50% Tigernut flour and 50% Rice flour) better than the other 2 samples. The study concludes that the inclusion of Tigernuts-based diets can be enjoyed by individuals and families in Nigerian to develop and maintain all-round wellness. It was recommended that state and federal government in Nigeria should synergize to establish Tigernuts Research Institute to work out modalities on how Tigernuts can be cultivated in large quantities and how it can be processed into various useful and healthful products.