Quality Evaluation of Tunnel Dried ‘Ogiri’

‘Ogiri’ is an indigenous fermented soup condiment that once popular in South-West Nigeria but its usage nowadays has been limited to remote villages and rural dwellers. This has been due to inadequate nutritional information on the condiment. In this study, melon seeds were sorted and boiled to soften the melon seeds, the samples were allowed to ferment 72 hours. These fermented samples were dried in the tunnel dryer at different temperature of 40OC, 50OC and 60OC. The dried ‘ogiri’ samples were analyzed for proximate composition, functional properties and sensory evaluation. The results of proximate composition showed that moisture content ranged from 10.68 to 13.90%, the ash content ranged from 3.12 to 3.32 %, the fat content ranged from 10.0 to 12.7 %, the protein content ranged from 8.0 to 8.7%, the crude fiber content ranged from 4.51 to 4.7 %, and carbohydrate (56.7 to 63.0) %. The functional properties of ‘ogiri’ samples results were: bulk density ranged from 1.13 to 1.16g/ml, water absorption capacity ranged from 10.0 to 12.4 cm3/g, emulsifying capacity ranged from 5.02 to 6.83 mg/g, emulsifying stability ranged from 8.00 to 8.45, swelling properties ranged from 1.15 to 1.45 g water/g sample, and FFA ranged from 0.013 to 0.016 mg KOH/g. The sensory evaluation ‘ogiri’ samples showed that samples dried at 50oC had overall acceptability.