ABSTRACT

This study evaluated some quality properties of Hour blends of wheat, water yam and black beans (Akidi). The functional properties and proximate composition were determined using standard analytical methods. Mixture experimental design of Response Surface Methodology was employed in this work and factor-response interactions and optimization of mixture variables were done using Expert Design version 6. The results of the functional properties showed that gelatinization temperature ranged from 62.75 to 69.00%, foam capacity ranged from 14.45 to 21.43%, oil capacity absorption ranged from 1.49 to 1.85%, emulsion capacity ranged from 16.71 to 27.41%, bulk density ranged from 0.47 to 0.60%, and water absorption capacity ranged from 1.83 to 2.77% while proximate composition results showed moisture content range of 9.77 to 11.36%, determination of magnesium ranged from 88.64-90.46%. ash content ranged from 1.65 to 2.42%, fat content ranged from 1.8 to 2.39%, crude protein ranged from 11.79 to 13.88%, crude fibre ranged from 1.61 to 2.29%, carbohydrate content ranged from 66.03 to 72.50%. Interaction of mixture variables showed significant interaction for between studied variables and functional and proximate properties while optimization revealed that for optimal functional and proximate scores that Hour blend from 40% wheat Hour, 36.86%akidi Hour and 23.14% water yam Hour should be considered. However, analysis show that sample 102(40% wheat Hour. 50% black beans (akidi) and 10% water yam Hour) had the highest score in most of the functional properties and proximate compositions as evaluated