Abstract
A survey was conducted in relation to the production process of dambu. Dambu is a staple food for the Fulanis and Hausas. A majority of the dambu dealers (42.7%) were less than 25 years old. A proportion of 78.7% of processors of dambu were females. The processors/consumers (37.4%) indicated that millet was the major raw material for dambu production. A significant difference (p = 0.01) existed among respondents on the variety of millet chosen for dambu production. The study reveals that ‘gero’ is the variety in common use. Spices are indispensable as an ingredient in dambu production with ginger being the single most important spice (p = 0.07). The traditional pounding method for processing millet into flour is still very much used. The processors (58.9%) and retailers (41.0%) generally agreed that the method of marketing dambu is by hawking in transparent low density polyethylene package. Sun drying as indicated by 35.3% of the respondents was the most common method of storing left-over dambu. Total percentage of 27.4, 39.2 and 33.4% were deduced for the poor, the middle and the rich class consumption of dambu, respectively. With increasing influence of advertising upon customers, small food processing enterprises making dambu will have to improve the packaging and preservation of their products as to survive the competition. The implications of these are highlighted and a possible solution of optimizing the dambu production process is recommended. Key words: Ginger, cloves, dambu, millet, packaging, shelf-life.  
Highlights
In West Africa, in the Northern part of Nigeria, one of such cereal-based products is called dambu - a steamed nonfermented granulated dumpling generally made from pearl millet (Nkama et al, 1999; Agu et al, 2007, 2008)
Dambu is similar to fura – a semi- solid dumpling cereal meal, but differs only in the production process (Jideani and Wedzicha, 1994)
Dambu is produced mainly from moistened pearl millet flour, blended with spices and steamed for 20 min. using two fold systems, which involves pouring the mixed flour with spices into a sieve and placed on an open pot that contains little water
Summary
In tropical Africa, cereal grains are milled and used to produce different types of food which are known by various names in different parts of the African continent as thin porridge (ogi) (Apena et al, 2006), thick porridge. In West Africa, in the Northern part of Nigeria, one of such cereal-based products is called dambu - a steamed nonfermented granulated dumpling generally made from pearl millet (Nkama et al, 1999; Agu et al, 2007, 2008). As the water in the pot boils, the steam cooks the dambu on the sieve It has coarse particles resembling moistened couscous. Pearl millet products like fura and dambu are sold from calabash containers to consumers without appropriate packaging (Jideani et al, 2001a; Agu et al, 2008). This study was conducted to establish the materials and the ingredients as well as the production process for dambu from the processors and consumers This will provide baseline information for food manufacturers and a basis for improving this process
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