TARO “Colocasia esculenta”: Its Utilization in Food Products in Ghana

Abstract

The study developed Taro “Colocasia esculenta” products and sensorily assessed acceptability and promotion in the diets of Ghanaians to help address the increasing persistent malnutrition among Ghanaians and provide employment through agro-processing. Composite flours were produced from taro, soybeans, rice and maize and analyzed proximately. Ten panelists, 5 males and 5 females were purposively sampled from the VOTEC Department of University of Cape Coast and interviewed. A self developed questionnaire was administered to panelists to evaluate the sensory properties of baby food and pastries prepared from the composite flours. Panelists’ scores were subjected to ANOVA and Duncan’s multiple test at α ≤ 0.05. Babies of the 5 females were fed samples of the baby food and observations made in relation to how well they ate the food were compared to the scores provided by the panelists. Results showed taro flour ash content of 4.01%, protein 3.43%, carbohydrates 0.74%, dry matter 85.32%, and fat 0.18%. Sensory analyzed samples had high mean scores for characteristics considered. Appearance and color of baby food (S1 - S4) were not significantly different at α ≤ 0.05 whilst taste, flavor and overall acceptability differed. The taste of S1 and S3 were not significantly different but were significantly different for S2 and S4. The texture of S1 and S3 were not significantly different but S4 was different. All samples of baby food were not significantly different for overall acceptability. For the taro cake (T1 - T3) most of the sensory characteristics were not significantly different. T2 was evaluated as the best product followed by T3, T1 whilst T6 came out as the best product followed by T5 and T4 respectively.