EFFECT OF GERMINATION ON THE INVITRO-DIGESTIBILITY AND PASTING PROPERTIES OF COMPLEMENTARY FOOD FROM RICE, PI- GEON PEA AND CARROT FLOUR BLENDS

Abstract

The germination of cereal grains can be very useful in improving the invitro-digestibility and pasting properties of flours in new product development and their behaviour during preparation of complementary foods. Therefore, this study examined the effect of germination on the invitro-digestibility and pasting properties of complementary food from blends of rice, pigeon pea protein concentrate and carrot flour. Rice and carrot were processed according to standard methods. Pigeon pea was germinated at 25Oc for 48h, dried before obtaining the pigeon pea protein concentrate flour. The resulting flours were formulated in the ratio of 60:10:30, 65:10:25 and 70:10:20 for rice, pigeon pea protein and respectively while commercial product serves as control. Protein and starch digestibility were estimated by in-vitro enzymatic digestion while pasting properties were determined using rapid visco-analyzer. The protein digestibility decreases as the concentration of the rice increases when it was digested for 1h which ranged from 75.53 to 85.665 and increased significantly when it was digested for 6h from 79.12 to 93.95. Likewise starch digestibility decreases as the concentration of the rice increases. Germinating the pigeon pea significantly increased the pasting properties. However, the blend with the lowest rice inclusion had the best in-vitro digestibility and better pasting properties.