Abstract:
Anaemia caused by a reduction in red blood cell formation or a lack of iron in the body reserve is prevalently a nutritional disease in the world. Yoghurt, traditionally produced with cow milk has relatively low iron content. Yoghurt is currently being utilized to offer nutritious components to people's diets. This study centered on the enrichment of cow milk yoghurt with malted pearl millet, fluted pumpkin leaves and soybeans. Samples were prepared in proportions of cow milk to enrichment sources thus: 70:30, 60:40 and 50:50 for soybeans, malted pearl millet and 95:5, 90:10 and 85:15 for fluted pumpkin. The proximate, mineral, physicochemical, microbial and sensory properties of the products were evaluated and the data obtained from the results were analyzed and estimated with Analysis of variance (ANOVA). The moisture, protein, fat, ash and carbohydrate content ranged from 86.56 to 80.74%, 3.39 to 8.79%, 2.20 to 3.60%, 0.14 to 0.99% and 2.60 to 10.88% respectively. Potassium (P), Ca, and K content ranged from 0.08 to 0.1%, Mg ranged from 0.02 to 0.1%, Na ranged from 17.15 to 22.01ppm, Mn ranged from 0.35 to 3.91ppm, Cu ranged from 0.23 to 1.18ppm, Zn ranged from 3.73 to 6.04ppm, and Fe ranged from 1.15 to 7.79ppm. The total titratable acidity, total solid, Solid-Not-Fat and pH ranged from 0.98 to 1.45%, 13.43 to 19.25%, 10.38 to 15.65% and 4.25 to 4.41 respectively. The sample that had the highest Lactobacillus count was a soybean enriched yoghurt (3.56×〖10〗^3CFU/ml) and the sample with the lowest Lactobacillus count was a malted pearl millet enriched yoghurt sample (1.00×〖10〗^2CFU/ml). The fluted pumpkin enriched yoghurt sample was the most preferred by the sensory panelists. However, soybeans enriched yoghurt had the best nutritional profile. Yoghurt enriched with plant-based sources has potential benefits in nutritional quality improvement for human health.
