NUTRITIONAL, PHYSICOCHEMICAL, MICROBIAL AND SENSORY ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE FOOD SPREADS PRODUCED FROM PERSEA AMERICANA AND ARACHIS HYPOGEA PLANTS

Abstract

Avocado (Persea americana) fruit deteriorates rapidly after harvest and this necessitated the implementation of this project. The objective of this project was centred around two accomplishments, i) to salvage the wastage of avocado fruits by enriching peanut butter with fresh avocado pulp, and ii) to provide a healthful option of fat-based foodspread containing monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats opposed to saturated and trans fats rampant in the widely consumed contemporary food spreads. Arachis hypogaea (groundnuts) have high amount of oleic and linoleic fatty acid profile that accounts for about 75 to 80% of the total oil it contains. The nutritional, physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory properties of peanut butter fortified with Avocado pear fruit were analysed in this study. Peanut butter and avocado paste were substituted at varying ratios of 100:0, 80:20, 70:30, 50:50 and 0:100. Studies on the proximate composition, mineral constituents, and sensory evaluation revealed that fortifying groundnuts with Avocado significantly increased its fat content from 25% to 52.6% and 47.9% for 20g and 30g of avocado pulp respectively. Addition of avocado pulp significantly increased the fibre content of peanut butter from 2.8% to 4.5 and 3.85% for 20g and 30g of avocado pulp respectively. Most importantly, the fortified samples showed significant increase in % ash content from 0.87% to 1.9%, 1.61% and 1.42% for 20g, 30g and 50g of avocado pulp respectively, as compared with the standard sample, indicating that the avocado enriched foodspread contains appreciable levels of mineral composition and could be used to supplement the daily energy intake of consumers. The composite spreads also possessed more Na and Cu than the standard sample and had a higher score for mouthfeel by the sensory panelists. The aforementioned results show that traditional peanut butter foodspread could be substituted with peanut avocado composite foodspread up to 20% in edible, spreadable foodspread production.