Development and Consumer Acceptability of Locust Beans and Groundnut (Loground) Spread

Abstract

Spread of various ingredients have dominated the Ghanaian market creating jobs for other outside Ghana. The purpose of the study was to develop spread from underutilized legumes and beans in Ghana for bread, etc. The study came out of three research objectives and two hypotheses of the possibility to use groundnut and locust beans indigenous in the Northern Ghana for spread formulation. Relevant literature was reviewed to guide and support findings from the study. The study adopted true experimental research design and the hedonic scale for sensory evaluation. The products developed from groundnuts and locust beans were sensorily evaluated by selected 100 panellists. Appropriate statistical tools were used from the IBM-SPSS version 25 for Windows to aid the data analysis. The results showed that groundnuts and locust beans could be used to develop spread formulation i.e., Groundnut and Locust spread (GALS, 50:50), Groundnut with Locust spread (GWLS, 75:25) and Locust with Groundnut Spread (LWGS, 75:25). The proximate composition i.e., dry matter, moisture, ash, protein, oil/fat, fibre and carbohydrate were determined. The proximate values for each formulation differed and in most cases in the control formulation (groundnut paste). The sensory evaluation showed that the control formulation coded (GS, 100% groundnut) was the most accepted formulation (LWGS<GALS<GWLS<GS). There was a statistically significant difference in the nutritional composition in the three formulations (p<0.05) and the second hypothesis showed that, there was statistically significant difference in the consumer acceptability of the three spreads (p<0.005). The study revealed that, overall acceptability decreased with increased proportion of locust beans in the spread.