Search

Meat is a highly nutritious food rich in protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals. Nevertheless, chemical reactions and microorganisms might affect the quality of nutritional constituent of meat products. This study investigated the influence of adding Moringa oleifera leaves powder (MOLP) on the nutritional, technological properties, and consumer acceptability of mutton patties. Four treatments of mutton patties with 0, 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9% of MOLP were produced. The prepared patties (raw and cooked) were evaluated for quality attributes such as proximate composition, total phenolic content (TPC), cooking properties (cooking yield and cooking loss), physical characteristics (colour and water holding capacity [WHC]), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), pH value, and sensory quality. The incorporation of MOLP into the mutton patties significantly increased (p < 0.05) protein, fat, ash contents, TPC, pH, WHC, and cooking yield. However, moisture content, TBARS, and colour decreased. Most sensory likability scores of patty samples with up to 0.3% of MOLP were comparable to those of the control sample. Evidently, the inclusion of 0.3% of MOLP produces mutton patties with high sensory desirability.

Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean) is an African legume that belongs to the family and subfamily of Fabaceae and Faboidea, respectively. It is becoming one of the most utilized legumes after being underutilized for many years in Africa. It is the third most significant legume after groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) and cowpea (Vigna hypogea). Bambara groundnut (BGN) is a complete food because of its richness in nutritional properties such as crude fiber, iron, protein, carbohydrate, fat and minerals. Moreover, BGN possesses antioxidants properties as it contains phytochemicals, such as tannins, flavonoids and phytic acids which possess health benefits for humans such as preventing diabetes, stroke, atherosclerosis, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, these phytochemicals extend the shelf life of food products and have antimicrobial properties which can inhibit microbial growth. This paper highlights the current findings on BGN nutritional composition, health benefits, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. Therefore, it is advisable for food industry to exploit BGN grain to its full potential to tackle challenges of food security and nutrition globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]