Effects of Different Fermentation Periods on the Nutritional and Anti-Nutritional Properties of “Tuwo” Produced from Maize and Bambara Groundnut

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of fermentation period on nutritional and anti-nutritional properties of tuwo made from maize and bambara groundnut. The bambara groundnuts were subjected to fermentation at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h prior to pulverizing into flour. Maize flour was composited with the fermented bambara groundnut flour and coded as sample A (100% maize flour), sample B (90% maize flour + 10% fermented bambara groundnut at 24 h), sample C (90% maize flour + 10% fermented bambara groundnut at 48 h) and sample D (90% maize flour + 10% fermented bambara groundnut at 72 h). The tuwo samples were subjected to proximate, anti-nutritional and sensory analysis using standard analytical methods. The sensory properties of the tuwo samples were assessed using standard 9-point hedonic scale with 9 representing like extremely and 1 representing dislike extremely. The proximate composition of the dumpling samples showed that moisture varied from 48.00 to 55.10%, ash from 0.47 to 1.95%, crude fibre from 4.11 to 6.44%, crude lipid from 1.06 to 3.39%, crude protein from 0.37 to 0.90%, carbohydrate from 88.83 to 93.08% and dry matter from 44.90 to 52.01%. The antinutritional properties result showed that phytate varied from 9.70 to 13.16 mg/100 g, oxalate from 53.13 to 92.50 mg/100 g, tannin from 0.000212 to 0.000274 mg/100 g. The sensory properties of the tuwo samples showed that tuwo from sample A was the most preferred by the sensory assessors; however, other tuwo samples supplemented with bambara groundnut samples had comparable sensory ratings. The tuwo samples were of high moisture contents. Supplementation of fermented bambara groundnut flour at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h improved the total ash, crude fibre, crude lipid and crude protein. However, reduction in carbohydrate and dry matter were observed. Antinutritional properties of the tuwo samples including phytate, oxalate and tannin reduced at varying periods (24 h, 48 h and 72 h) of fermented bambara groundnut flour inclusion.