Canadian Journal of Pure & Applied Sciences

Abstract: Fortification of commonly consumed cereals with inexpensive plant protein sources such as soybeans has been exploited to improve the protein quality of staple foods through a mutual complementation of their limiting amino acids. In Ghana and other parts of West Africa, millet is used for the processing of many traditional fermented foods including maasa. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of soybean fortification on the fermentation characteristics and proximate composition of fermented millet dough as well as consumer acceptability of maasa produced from different soy-millet blends. Maasa samples were prepared from a blend of steeped pearl millet grains and pre-soaked, blanched, hand dehulled soybean added at 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40% replacement levels. The millet-soybean blends were wet-milled, formulated into a dough, spontaneously fermented for 14 h and fried into cake known as maasa. During spontaneous fermentation, samples were analyzed for pH, total titratable acidity, microbial counts and proximate composition. Finally, maasa prepared from the fermented millet-soybean blends were assessed for consumer acceptability using a nine point hedonic scale. There was a general decrease in pH from 5.4-5.5 to 3.9-4.1 pH units and an increase in titratable acidity from 0.10-0.30 to 0.58-1.26 (%lactic acid) during the 14 h fermentation period. Lactic acid bacteria and yeast counts reached 9.7 and 8.0 logcfu/g respectively. Crude protein and fat contents increased with the addition of soybeans whereas carbohydrate content reduced. Consumer sensory evaluation showed that fortification with 20% soybean positively affected taste, colour, texture and the overall acceptability of maasa. Therefore, soybean can be used to fortify the Ghanaian millet-based maasa to improve nutrient quality and acceptability of maasa by replacing 20% of the millet with soybeans prior to milling and fermentation.