Functional property of complementary blends of soybean and cowpea with malted or unmalted maize

Complementary food mixtures were prepared with malted or unmalted maize using extrusion cooking. The maize was fortified with cowpea and soybean at a ratio of 45:35 and 55:25%, respectively. The mixtures were subjected to functional characteristic evaluation. The blends had good functional characteristics with a particularly low viscosity in the cowpea with malted maize mixture. Minimum nitrogen solubility index values were observed around pH 4 and 5 for both malted and unmalted mixtures. The malted-based blends had a higher water absorption capacity and a lower emulsification property, while the oil absorption was not significantly affected. The addition of malted maize to cowpea significantly affected the gelation value of the mixture. Gluten was the most abundant protein in all the mixtures while globulin and albumin were, respectively, next to it in malted-based mixtures. Sensory evaluation showed that malting improved the flavour of the mixtures. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.