Development of a complete meal from underutilized indigenous and exotic foods

Abstract

A complete meal is a food served and eaten in one sitting whose nutrient variety has been optimized. Green bananas are a good source of resistant starch and dietary fibre while Irish potatoes are rich in starch and dietary fibre. Moringa leaves are rich in protein, minerals and vitamins while being low calorific value. Fig gourd leaves are mainly rich in vitamins. However, many people prefer ripe bananas as snacks/fruit to cooked green ones. Moringa leaves are mainly used for medicinal purposes hence rarely used as a food item. Exotic vegetables are mostly preferred in food processing to indigenous ones hence making the indigenous vegetables underutilized. Development of a complete meal using these neglected food items would improve their utilization. The bananas, fig gourd leaves and Moringa leaves were oven dried at 60 C and ground into powder using a blender. A composite powder was prepared that could be reconstituted at the time of need. The flours were blended into a paste and a pellet as the final product in a ratio of Moringa: potato flour: fig gourd leaves (1:10:1). The paste and pellets were subjected to proximate analysis and sensory evaluation. The proximate composition of the paste was 3.22±0.5, 12.83±0.8 2.86±0.2, 11.32±0.6% for protein, fat, fibre and ash. The product was formulated to provide the RDA for an average adult of 62kg. The overall acceptability of the product by sensory panelist was liked moderately by 70% of the panelists making it viable food product.