ABSTRACT

Akara is a popular dish prepared from cowpea. Optimization of cowpea (Vigna

unguiculata) flour is to produce ready-to-use cowpea flour for production of

akara. The experimental design was central composite rotatable design (33)

Process variables were variety (Borno local "Ife brown", Sokoto local and Kano

1696), grit size (0.15, 0.25 and 0.35 mm) and soaking temperature (15°C, 27°C

and 80°C) for 5 minutes. Data of functional properties and sensory evaluation

were analyzed in a regression, ANOVA and response surface plots. Numerical

optimization showed maximum mean value of water absorption capacity

(2.5oglg), oil absorption capacity (1 .94g1g), emulsion capacity (81.77%),

foaming capacity (14.13%), swelling capacity (1.o3glg), wetting (60.21

seconds), bulk density (0.71g/ml) at a desirability level of 0.505 at the variable

levels of 21.00°C, 0.36 and 0.23 mm for treatment temperature, variety and grit

size respectively. Numerical optimization showed maximum mean value of

colour (6.83), aroma (6.07), taste (6.54), texture (5.73) and general

acceptability (6.04) at a desirability level of 0.681 at the variable levels of

31.05°C, 0.36 and 0.25 mm for treatment temperature, variety and grit size

respectively. Similar product qualities were obtained in a repeated run using

same processing variable setup. Values should be used for preparation of

ready-to-use cowpea flour.