Physicochemical and sensory quality of breakfast cereals produced from flour blends of maize and pigeon pea

Breakfast cereals offer affordable, quick and convenient meal options. This study examined the proximate, techno-functional, mineral and sensory qualities of breakfast cereals produced from a flour blend of maize and pigeon peas. Maize flour was substituted with pigeon pea flour at 0 %, 10 %, 20 %, 30 %, 40 % and 50 % levels. The composite flours (100 g), sugar (25 g), salt (5 g) and water (50 ml) were mixed to form a paste, baked at 110 °C for 1 h then cooled. The proximate composition, techno-functional properties, minerals and sensory quality were evaluated. With increase in pigeon pea flour incorporation, there were increase in crude protein from 10.93 to 14.30 %, ash from 1.56 to 3.11 % while crude fibre from 1.25 to 3.37 %. In contrast, there was significant (p < 0.05) decrease in water absorption capacity from 361.30 to 181.83 %. With 50 % pigeon pea flour incorporation, calcium significantly increased from 27.95 to 44.55 mg/100g while iron and magnesium decreased from 3.92 to 2.16 mg/100g and 75.07 to 63.16 mg/100g, respectively. Breakfast cereal containing maize:pigeon pea flour in the ratio 80:20 and 70:30 generally had the highest mean sensory scores on a 7-point Hedonic scale. This suggests that maize flour can be substituted with pigeon pea up to 30 % without producing significant changes in the sensory quality.