Abstract
Plantain (Musa spp.) constitutes an essential food crop in both tropical and subtropical areas. The staple’s nutritional value and provitamin A carotenoid potential has attracted more interest and usage. Plantain (Musa spp.) optimization into food recipes has been identified to increase patronage and minimises food wastage, due to the fruit’s (pulp) high perishability nature. In this study, local over ripe plantain (Musa spp.) was sampled and used in a beverage production. The beverage was processed from pureed ripe plantain, by three days fermentation of the pureed plantain mixture, boiling, and spicing, preservation with syrup, storage, and usage. The product’s processing was followed with a sensory evaluation of the new beverage on taste, appearance, color, flavour, and overall acceptability. Majority of the respondents indicated the new product was good and was well accepted. The research sought to create food diversity, encourage more usage of the crop and to highlight the nutritional values of plantain (Musa spp.) which is particularly high in provitamin A carotenoid to address Vitamin A deficiency in low resource setting communities.
Highlights
This paper aimed to produce nutritious beverage using yellow or ripe plantain (Musa spp.), which contain naturally occurring pro-vitamin A with other nutrients and to conduct sensory evaluation of the new beverage developed to determine its acceptability by respondents
The results indicate that, out of the 50-respondents sampled, 35 representing 70% responded that the new plantain beverage was very pleasant, 10 respondents representing 20% chose pleasant, while 2 respondents representing 10% selected quite pleasant, none of the respondents scored the new product not tasty
Over ripe plantain (Musa spp.) and peppercorns were utilised in a beverage preparation and processing
Summary
Plantain meets the caloric requirements of several people worldwide Their suitability as food is that they produce crops all year round, making them more reliable all-season staple food. This is important for communities living in mountainous areas or forests with inadequate food storage, transportation, and preservation technologies [2]. The raw plantain (Musa spp.) consists of nutrients, which includes proteins; carbohydrates; minerals, vitamins, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acid. These nutrients make plantain a nutritious food source that addresses both the macro and micro-nutrient needs of growing populations and prevents nutrient deficiencies, most especially Vitamin A [3]. An in-vitro bio-accessibility study conducted by [7] on ripe plantain revealed that, following processing, the provitamin A available for absorption in ripe plantain-derived dishes (16% - 27%) was higher than those found in common root tubers
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