ABSTRACT

 Starch and flour blends prepared from yellow flesh sweet potato (Ipomea batatas L), Irish potato (Solanum tuberosume L), Maize (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max L) at different proportions were extruded into strips using a locally fabricated and manually operated extruder. Proximate composition, functional properties, minerals, vitamins, amylose and amylopectin composition of the starch and flour blends were evaluated. The sensory properties of the strips produced were also determined. The flour and starch blends had proximate composition ranging from 9.86 to 12.11% moisture, 3.66 to 0.23% ash, 2.13 to 0.11%crude fibre, 17.88 to 0.61% protein 5.70 to 0.38% fat and 88.41 to 59.73% carbohydrate. The functional properties of the starch and flour blends were 0.83 to 0.67% bulk density, 2.40 to 1.84% water absorption capacity, 1.94 to 1.60% oil absorption capacity, 63.50 to 10.50% wettability, 80.00 to 64.00% gelatininization temperature. The mineral composition of the blends were 0.04 to 0.0 1% iron, 0.22 to 0.03% calcium. The vitamin content ranged from 32.83 to 12.84% vitamin C, 0.04 to 0.01 riboflavin. The physical properties of the samples were, 34.48 to 2 1.23% amylose in starch blends,78.77 to 65.74 amylopectin in starch blend. The result of the sensory evaluation of the different quality attributes based on the nine point hedonic scale showed that the sweet potato and soybean blend were found to be the most acceptable to the panelists.