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Improvement of Ogi flavour with malted corn

Anthonia E.Uzoukwu

Ogi (pap) is a fermented cereal paste food frequently used for weaning infants. The fermentation process produces sour flavour in Ogi, which is often rejected by infants. This creates a problemfor mothers in manyAfrican countries and beyond (focus on Nigeria) as they have searched for alternatives like imported formulas, a choice that is exorbitant for low-income parents. This research work improved regular Ogi to Ogi-malt blend by blending de-watered wet-milled corn and dry-milled malted corn in the proportion of 10%solid of wet-milled Ogi (control) and 20%solid of drymilled three days (72hrs)malted corn (21.3g : 11.48g). Proximate analysis of the samples showed that the malt-blended product had relatively higher protein (7.53%) and fat (3.0%) contents and lower carbohydrate (74.96%) and viscosity (450 centipoises at 80OC) than the regularOgi (5.77%, 2.50%, 76.83%and “680 centipoises at 80OC” respectively). Sensory evaluation of the samples on a seven-point scale (with 7 = Extremely liked and 1 = Extremely disliked) showed that the flavour and colour of the Ogi-malt blend (6.4 and 6.6) were preferred to those of the regular Ogi (4.0 and 6.0 respectively). Malt-blending can therefore be applied to improve the overall acceptability ofOgi.