Processing, Physicochemical, Nutritional, and Organoleptical Properties of Dackere, an African Cereal/Tuber Food Semolina
2013
Meli, Cyrille Foaguam | Njintang, Nicolas Yanou | Noumi, Guy Bertrand | Bernard, Clemence | Relkin, Perla | Armand, Melanie | Mbofung, Carl M. F.
Dackere is a granulated food made from tubers or cereals flours by women in rural areas of Northern Cameroon. The processing of the semolina faces some constraints that affect the quality and hence the potential to improve the incomes of producers. The objectives of this work were to identify and characterize the processing steps involved in the production of dackere and evaluate the physicochemical and hedonic characteristics of this food. Four groups of farmers consisting of organized and specialized women in dackere processing were used for this purpose and then followed up in their production site. The results obtained revealed that dackere was manufactured from either tubers or cereals based on the available food materials: sweet potato, cassava, corn, millet, fonio, and mixture of sweet potato/corn. Generally, the processes involved included hydrating the flour with water, granulating manually, steam cooking, and eventually drying. All these processes were done in a non-replicable manner using traditional equipment. The physicochemical characterization revealed that dackeres were in general rich in starch (60.63 to 94.99 g/100 g) and poor in proteins (0.77 to 4.42 g/100 g). Digestible starch varied from 34.9 g/100 g for corn dackere to 66.6 g/100 g for cassava and sweet potatoes dackeres, and the index of whiteness varied from 58.8 for sweet potatoes dackere to 75.8 for cassava and corn dackeres. Significant variations were observed among producers. Consumers more appreciated the sweet potato/corn dackere mixture which was associated by principal component analysis to high swallowing ability, taste, and adherence in mouth. However, they were irregular in size and brown in color, characteristics negatively correlated to acceptability.
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