Quality Evaluation of Sorghum-Malted Cowpea flour Blend for Biscuit Making Using Albino Rat to Test its Suitability for Consumption

The study investigated the quality evaluation of sorghum and malted cowpea flour blends for biscuit making. The malted cowpea was substituted at 0, 5,10, 15 and 100% into the sorghum flour to produced sorghum -malted cowpea flour blends and were used to produce biscuits. The proximate composition, functional, anti-nutrient, sensory of the blend biscuits and haematological qualities of the rat fed were carried out using standard laboratory procedures. The results of the proximate composition showed an increase in the protein, fat and moisture contents from 18.25 to 30.52%, 0.63 to 2.66% and 18.31 to 20.21%, respectively with decrease in the ash, fiber and carbohydrate contents from 2.21 to 1.82%, 16.10 to 14.85% and 45.23 to 29.78%, respectively. The phytate and tannin levels decreased from 76.42 to 45.12 mg/100 and 0.15 to 0.02 mg/100. The sensory mean scores for taste, aroma, color, texture and general acceptability ranged from 6.53 to 6.60, 3.93 to 4.06, 7.40 to 7.53, 7.33 to 7.40, 6.40 to 6.60. Biscuit samples with 10% malted cowpea inclusion out of the five were most preferred. The foaming capacity, water absorption capacity, oil absorption capacity, swelling capacity and bulk density ranged from 2.00 to 2.50, 0.15 to 0.43, 25.5 to 16.90, 3.954.04 to and 2.75 to 3.90 mg/100g. The Hemoglobin (HB), Packed Cell Volume (PCV),Red Blood Cell (RBC),White Blood Cell (WBC) are as follows; 8.10 to 9.70 g/dl, 25.50 to 31.50 %, 29500 to 37500 L-1 ,4425.0 to 12425.0 L-1 respectively over the duration of three (3) weeks of feeding the albino rats. Generally, the inclusion of malted cowpea flour has improved the nutrition assessed parameters as well as that of the consumers.