Fortification Impact on Nutritional and Anti-Nutritional Composition of Soy-Enriched Gari

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine and compare the nutritional and anti-nutritional properties of gari enriched with soy curd, residue and control samples. The soy curd and residue flours were used to co-enrich the fermented dewatered and sifted cassava meal during toasting at 10% levels to produce fortified gari samples which were evaluated for nutritional and anti-nutritional properties. The mineral content such as potassium, zinc, calcium, iron and magnesium of formulated samples were higher than those obtained from the control gari samples. The A and B vitamins increased significantly (P<0.05) with enrichment but did not follow the same trend in the case of vitamin C which decreased with enrichment. Enrichment correspondingly increased the phytic acid content from 4.12 in the control gari to a range of 5.67-5.76 in the enriched samples, oxalate, condensed tannins and trypsin inhibitors also followed the same trend by increasing with enrichment, while the hydrocyanic acid content decreased from 1.94 mg/g in the control gari to a range of 1.12 mg/g – 1.15 mg/g for the enriched samples. The study concluded that the samples enriched with soy curd and residue were better than the control gari sample in terms of minerals, vitamins A and B, while the anti-nutritional factors were moderate and at a tolerable level. Cassava is not a good source of quality proteins. Therefore, the use of gari as a major staple food in Nigeria should be supplemented with good quality proteins such as soy residue or curd.