Gastronomic Evaluation, Physico-Chemical Characteristics and Microbiological Quality of Indigenous Dishes in Selected Ecotourism Destinations in South-West Nigeria

The indigenous food entrepreneurship especially in developing counties are experiencing low patronage as a result of domination of modern cuisines and erosion of culture, as well as dearth of knowledge about the cultural significance and the positive health implications of the diverse dishes. This forms the basis for undertaking this study with a view to generate information on the gastronomic properties, physico-chemical characteristics and microbial parameters of indigenous dishes in selected ecotourism destinations in Southwest, Nigeria. The selected ecotourism destinations include Ikogosi warm spring, Ekiti-State and Osun-Osogbo sacred grove. Interviews were conducted for food vendors that were selected through snowball sampling. The identified diets were selected based on the information obtained on their indigenous consumption and gastronomic values. Findings from the study revealed the identified dishes going into extinction include dele, eko-elewe, yanrin and eko-elewe; iyan and panpata soup and Owowo. The selected dishes were prepared in both modern and indigenous mode of food preparation. The proximate and mineral composition showed that sampled dishes prepared in both Ikogosi warm and cold spring and the Osun Osogbo sacred grove were rich in crude fibre (0.19%, 10.74%), Protein (24.72%, 47.34%) , Ash(5.51%, 14.08%), Fat(9.95%, 20.76%) carbohydrate (18.87%, 40.87%), Sodium (48.90 ppm, 66.95 ppm), Potassium (80.60 ppm, 114.75 ppm), calcium (30.40 ppm, 43.80 ppm), Magnesium (55.60 ppm, 66.80 ppm), copper (0.20 ppm, 0.58 ppm), respectively. The ability of an indigenous food to scavenge 2,2 diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radicals showed that sample C- (Modern cooking (Yanrin soup/eko-elewe) had the highest scavenging activity of 42.03% followed by sample D- (Traditional Cooking (Dele/ eko-elewe), and sample H-Traditional cooking method (Yanri soup and eko-elewe) respectively. The vitamin composition was higher in sample F (Traditional cooking method (owowo)) - having 1247.50 mcg/g vitamin A, while the lowest value was observed in sample C - (Modern cooking (Yanri soup/eko-elewe) 0.31 mcg/g for vitamin E. The microbial count of the indigenous soup showed that the total viable count ranged from 2 CFU/ml in sample A to 20 CFU/ml in sample F. The study recommends that indigenous dishes should be adopted in ecotourism destinations to resuscitate nutritious indigenous foods that are neglected or going into extinction within the two research communities, as this could increase the dinners taste for the indigenous dishes and facilitate destination branding. Besides, there should be continuous in-service education of tourism destination service providers to upgrade their skills on the preparation, preservation and presentation of the indigenous dishes to enhance diners’ attraction.