Instrumental and Sensory Textural Properties of Fura Made from Different Cereal Grains

Abstract

A uniaxial compression test and sensory textural analysis were conducted on fura samples from rice, millet, acha, maize, and sorghum flours. Maize fura had significantly higher firmness, energy per unit mass (EPM), breaking stress, and hardness values than the other fura samples. Fura from rice and maize had brittle type of failure at compression having a shear plane. Fura from millet, acha, and sorghum had plastic failure having barreling. Based on the calculated gradient, maize fura was significantly more brittle (i.e., less cohesive) than the other samples; whereas sorghum fura was more cohesive than the others. The panelists detected significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) among the samples for gumminess (denseness and cohesion persisting during mastication) and springiness (the rate at which fura returns to its original condition after deformation). Maize fura was scored the lowest for gumminess and springiness. Hence, acceptability of maize for fura production among consumers of fura may be very poor. Acha and sorghum fura with a plastic characteristic would, therefore, be acceptable as good alternatives to millet for fura production in terms of the texture of the product.