Physico-Chemical, Pasting, and Sensory Properties of “Poundo”-Yam Enriched with Defatted Soy Flour

The effect of defatted soy flour enrichment on the physicochemical, pasting and sensory properties of “poundo” yam flour produced from both cubed/boiled and boiled/mashed yam were evaluated. “Poundo” yam flour was produced by two different methods of peeling, washing followed by dicing/boiling and boiling/mashing then drying differently to produce “poundo” yam flour. The yam flours were enriched with soy flour in a ratios of 100:0; 90:10; 80:20 and 70:30 respectively. Analyses were carried out to determine the proximate, functional, pasting and sensory qualities. Enrichment increased the protein content from 4.21% to 19.56%, fat content from 1.28 to 3.64 %, ash contents from 1.22 to 1.83% and crude fiber from 1.7 to 3.68%) while the carbohydrate decreased from 87.42 to 71.00% depending on the levels of substitution. The bulk density (BD), swelling power (SP) of the flour samples decreased while the water absorption capacity (WAC) increased with soy enrichment. The peak viscosity decreased while the flour from mashed sample had the highest peak viscosity. The sensory evaluation shows that 10% soy enriched reconstituted instant “poundo” yam was still as acceptable as the control sample. Therefore enriching “poundo” yam flour with soybean flour up to 10% level produced an acceptable reconstituted “poundo” yam comparable in quality to the control. The mashed sample was more preferred among the reconstituted yam flour; therefore mashing the boiled yam before drying will be a better method for producing defatted soybean enriched yam flour. Keywords: “poundo” yam, enrichment, proximate, pasting, physicochemical, sensory