Abstract

This study was aimed at investigating the best way of enriching “lafun”, a fermented cassava meal with soy-curd and soy-residue and also determine their proximate, functional and pasting characteristics. “Lafun” wet meal was enriched with soy protein supplements (curd and residue) before drying. A sample without supplement was used as internal control and a commercial sample as an external control. They were subjected to proximate, functional and pasting properties evaluations. The proximate composition ranged from 4.00 – 5.43 %, 1.76 – 19.89 %, 1.57 - 2.58 %, 0.92 - 8.41 %, 2.01 – 3.65 %, 56.94 – 88.24 % for moisture, protein, crude fibre, fat, ash and carbohydrate respectively while the energy values ranged from 343 – 407 MJ/g. There were significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences in the functional and the pasting properties of both enriched and control samples. A peak viscosity of 359.25 RVU was observed in the control sample while the least peak viscosity of 199.83 RVU was recorded for commercial sample. The peak time increased from 4.07 min for “lafun” enriched with residue to 4.93 min for “lafun” enriched with curd while the pasting temperature and time ranged from 74.35 to 77.05 °C. The study has shown that enriching lafun with soy curd and residue improved its nutritional qualities but with a reduced peak viscosity. This will go a long way in reducing wastages normally associated with this crop in Nigeria during soymilk production.

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