Abstract:
Food producers make sure to offer quick-to-prepare, nutrient-dense food options that are suited to consumers' tastes and fast-paced lifestyles. Developing such foods is imperative given the need to address malnutrition, more so Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM). As a result, manufacturers are now focused on investigating innovative strategies like food-to-food fortification, which involves enhancing traditional staple foods with locally accessible, nutrient-dense, and underutilised crops like taro and soybean flour. This study thus aimed at innovatively developing protein-rich snack bars from pre-gelatinized taro flour enriched with soybeans. Producing pre-gelatinized taro flour under varying conditions and assessing its physico-chemical properties was the first step. Second step was to enrich pre-gelatinized taro flour with soybeans (raw, malted, roasted, and malted-roasted) to make flour blends for snack bars. Subsequently, followed by evaluating the microbial safety, nutritional components, sensory attributes, and shelf life through proximate content analysis, in-vitro protein digestibility, descriptive and consumer sensory tests, and accelerated shelf testing using the Arrhenius model. The data obtained was analysed using Statistical Analysis System software and significance tested by performing an analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 5% significance level. .Pre-gelatinization by boiling significantly reduced the oxalate content (56.7%), while roasting resulted in the least reduction (36.2%). Boiling also resulted in flour with the highest bulk density (BD) (0.86g/cm3) and the lowest water solubility index (WSI) (9.39%). Steamed flour had the highest water absorption index (WAI) (3.81 g/g), water holding capacity (WHC) (4.59g/g), and swelling capacity (SC) (4.86 g/g). Enriching pre-gelatinized taro flour with soybeans significantly increased crude protein, lipid, gross energy value, and in vitro protein ddigestibility (IVPD). The crude protein content increased by a proportional range of 55.75-337.76%, crude fat content increased by 189.09% to 949.09%, and the gross energy value ranged from 2.46-13.53%. Total phenolic in the snack bars increased significantly as soybean flour inclusion level increased. The enrichment also significantly affected the sensory attributes of the developed snack bars. Compositing with roasted soy flour resulted in a snack bar with the highest colour intensity and highly perceivable aroma. Compositing with malted and malted-roasted soy flour resulted in less brittle snack bars. The Arrhenius model predicted shelf life showed that snack bars had a shelf life of between 29 and 72 days. The findings show that taro and soybeans have the potential to be used in protein-rich bars to combat malnutrition, like PEM. Utilisation of these ingredients has the potential to improve food security and nutrition in disadvantaged Kenyan communities
