ABSTRACT

Nuts play an important role in the diet of many people in the world. They serve as supplement to nutrients provided by cereals, legumes, and vegetables. The goal of this study was to carry out studies on processed almond (Term/na/ia catappia) nut flour samples. To this end the seeds of Terminal/a catappia were analyzed to establish the effect of blanching and toasting on their proximate, functional, mineral and vitamin compositions and antinutritional and pasting properties. The results showed the presence of large amount of carbohydrates which ranged from 55.52% (raw) to 49.27% (toasted), and crude fat which ranged from 17.71% (toasted) to 2 1.30% (raw). The mean values of some parameters of functional properties (%) were: [78.53(raw), 63.30 (blanched), and 0.00 (toasted)] for foam stability and [33.17 (raw), 38.00 (blanched), and 42.27 (toasted)] for emulsion capacity. Minerals (mg/bOg) included: Mg [250.67 (raw), 252.33 (blanched), and 236.33 (toasted)] and Ca [828.33 (raw), 739.33 (blanched), and 741.67 (toasted)]. Vitamin E (mg/bOg) was noted to be [46.00 (raw), 42.23 (blanched), and 24.00 (toasted)]. The antinutrtional properties of the nut were: Tannin (%) [1.75 (raw), 1.42 (blanched), and 1.26 (toasted)] and phenol (%) [0.81 (raw), 0.90 (blanched), and 1.06 (toasted)]. Pasting properties were found to be; Peak 1 [32.86 (raw), 34.44 (blanched), and 32.02 (toasted)], and pasting temperature (°C) [92.53 (raw), 93.31 (toasted), and 92.29 (blanched).