Asian Food Science Journal

Purpose: The dietary habits of young adults have been affected; thus, overweight and obesity are increasingly being observed among the young. The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity on a sample of students from the Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) and to examine their eating habits.

Background: In the past year BAU has been experiencing a nutritional transition in food decisions from the everyday diet to the alimentation pattern. As a consequence, the dietary habits of young adults have been affected with progressive overweight and obesity .The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence on a sample of MS stidents from BAU and to look at their uptake habits.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 146 students were chosen randomly from the BAU throughout the JJ/2018 semester. With a 7 Days twenty four Hour Food frequency questionnaire where their Height, weight, dietary habits, Body mass index (BMI) were recorded. Statistical analyses were performed exploitation the Statistical Package for Social Sciences computer code (version 22.0) to determine overweight and obesity among students and to categorize uptake habits of food.

Results: This study showed that the majority of the students (80.4%) were of normal weight (80.8% male students compared to 80% female students). The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 9.1% and 2.3% respectively .In contrast, 15.0% female students were underweight as compared to 3.8% males. Eating habits of the students showed that the majority (61.4%) reported taking meals regularly. There was a colored vegetable and fruits were intake scarcity among students. A total of 30.5% reported daily intake of colored vegetables with gender differences (P=.003) (31.5% females vs. 29.2% males). These prevalence rates were greater in girls than boys. There were no clear associations observed between dietary habits and measures of overweight and obesity.

Conclusion: The overall low prevalence of overweight and obesity in the studied sample, indicate that university students would possibly benefit from nutrition and health promotion program to improve student’s eating habits.  There is a Significant differences observed among food type and frequency of consumption.

This study investigated the effect of the addition of Moringa leaf powder on the nutrient composition, antinutrient content, functional and pasting properties of the plantain flours, and sensory evaluation of their corresponding stiff dough (“Amala”). The stiff plantain doughs were produced using plantain flour substituted with different levels of Moringa leaf powder, ranging from 0-15 % at the interval of 2.5 %. The proximate composition (moisture, protein, fat, crude fiber, and carbohydrate) and antinutrient content (tannin, oxalate, and saponin) were determined according to the methods described by Association of Official Analytical Chemist. The mineral content was analysed using flame photometer and atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The result showed that addition of Moringa leaf powder increased the moisture, fat, ash, crude fiber and protein, contents, but reduced the carbohydrate content of the plantain flours. The inclusion of Moringa caused the reduction in Na, K and P contents and increased the quantities of Ca, Mg, and Fe in the fortified samples. Similarly, water absorption capacity, oil absorption capacity and the least gelation concentration of the supplemented flours increased, and their bulk density, swelling power, and solubility decreased with increase in Moringa substitution. The antinutrient content of the flour also increased (oxalate, 0.54-0.74 %; phytate, 0.60-0.83 %; saponin, 1.549-1.62 %; tannin, 0.43-0.60 %) after compositing. Fortification reduced the pasting (peak, breakdown, final and setback) viscosity and increased the time and temperature of attaining peak viscosity. The result of sensory evaluation for the fortified “Amala” revealed that 2.5 % to 5 % Moringa leaf powder supplementation for plantain flour was equally rated, and are sufficient to improve the proximate and mineral composition of plantain flour “Amala” without having a significant negative impact on the sensory properties.

This study work was involved with the development of functional condensed milk by mixing soy milk and coconut milk in lieu of cow’s milk. Producing condensed milk from both animal milk and plant milk contains a significant difference not only in the chemical composition but also in our health benefit phenomenon. We developed functional condensed milk on five formulations of soy milk and coconut milk. Coconut milk contains 80% moisture, 4% protein, 13.63% fat, 2.37%. Soy milk contains 90.5% moisture, 3.02% protein, 2.24% fat. There are five formulations are A (soy milk: coconut milk=0:1), B (soy milk: coconut milk=1:0), C (soy milk: coconut milk=3:2), D (soy milk: coconut milk=2:3), E (soy milk: coconut milk=1:1). The formulations of five condensed milk were also analyzed for their chemical composition. The statistical analysis showed that formulation B (soy milk: coconut milk=1:0) is more acceptable than other formulations. The statistical analysis showed that, formulation B (soy milk: coconut milk=1:0) is more acceptable than other formulations. Then we did proximate analysis such as moisture content comparison, protein content comparison, fat content comparison, ash content comparison and color test (L*a*b* type) (Lightness analysis, Redness analysis and Yellowness analysis) of the five formulations of coconut milk and soy milk in order to observe which formulation would be the best for human purpose our plant produced condensed milk would be an effective alternative of cow’s milk condensed milk.

Increasing the shelf life of kunu-zaki via conversion to powder form at the same time retaining its nutritional and sensory acceptability was evaluated on different cereal grains often used in the production of kunu (maize, sorghum, and millet). The grains were bought from Ibadan market, sorted carefully after which equal mass (250 g) of the sorted grains where soaked for seven two (72) hours, drained and were milled with the inclusion of other ingredients as spice. The mixture was sieved to remove the chaff and the liquid portion was allowed to Sediment after which it the upper layer containing water was decanted and the sediment layer was further processed to powdered form via drying. Sensory evaluation of the freshly prepared kunu and powdered reconstituted prepared kunu was done and compared. Similarly, the proximate, mineral composition and an assessment to verify any storage challenges such as insect infestation were investigated. The result obtained show that the shelf life of kunu-zaki was elongated from three days to more than six month as a result of the conversion to powdered form. The sensory evaluation of freshly prepared and powdered reconstituted kunu-zaki showed that there is no clear cut significant difference in the overall acceptability between freshly prepared kunu and powdered reconstituted kunu. Sorghum showed a better appearance, color and aroma both in the freshly prepared kunu and powdered reconstituted kunu above the other grains used. The proximate analysis carried out showed that the processed powdered form of kunu had a significant increase in protein, lipid and carbohydrate when compared with the freshly prepared kunu. The predominant minerals present in the sample include Iron, Copper, Zinc, Cobalt and Magnesium. It can be concluded that powdered reconstituted Kunu-zaki showed no significant difference in the major nutritional and sensory evaluated properties and was proven to have an elongated shelf life for more than six (6) months with no insect infestation during storage when compared to freshly prepared Kunu.

The effects of selected packaging materials on the storage, carotenoid content and sensory properties of ground pepper was investigated. Ground pepper was packed with polypropylene of different thickness such as (PP) 3 micron, 4 micron, 5 micron, 12.5 micron, 20 micron and 30 micron. Samples were analyzed for changes in proximate, carotenoid, mould count and sensory qualities at days 0, 30 and 60 for two months during storage at room temperature. The moisture (7.94 - 8.28%) and carbohydrate (33.21 - 35.77%) contents increased while protein (10.20 - 9.43%), fat (16.97 - 16.17%), ash (5.58 - 5.01%) and crude fibre (26.11 - 25.29%) contents decreased with the prolongation of storage period but significant (p>0.05) difference were not recorded between the various packaging materials. There was a significant (p<0.05) decrease in the carotenoid content of different packaging materials with a better level retained in PP 30 micron (19.27 mg/g) and PP 20 micron (16.12 mg/g) after 60 days of storage. There was also an increase in the mould count of the ground pepper packed with different packaging materials with PP 20 micron (2.8×10⁴cfu/g) and PP 30 micron (4.1×10⁴cfu/g) having the least counts. Sensory evaluation result showed that samples packed in PP 30 micron had better retention of pungency, PP 20 micron for aroma and PP 12.5 micron for colour. However, there was no significant (p>0.05) difference in the overall acceptability of the ground pepper as influenced by packaging materials. The PP 30 micron and 20 micron proved very useful for the storage of ground pepper for longer shelf life and good retention of carotenoid content, colour and pungency up to two months of storage period.