Assessment of the Nutritional Quality of Lactic Acid Bacteria Fermentation of Tiger nut Milk for Yoghurt Production

Protein deficiency and malnutrition is on the rise especially among children of weaning age. This is because protein sources from either plant or animals are usually expensive and beyond the reach of low income earners especially in the rural areas. Regular supply of food crops is also being threatened by possible crop failure, drastic climate change and lack of basic methodofextending the shelf life of perishable goods which makes them susceptible to microbial attack and lack of accessibility, availability and sustainability throughout the year round.

 Objectives of the study:

This study focused on isolation and identification of strains of Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) from fermented cereal sorghum gruel.. The technological properties of the organisms were studied and they were selected as starter culture for production of tiger nut yoghurt with a view to extending the shelf life of the highly perishable food product.

and improve the availability and nutritional quality of the starter produced yoghurt that can be used as weaning food.

Method fermented cereal: Strains of LAB were isolated from fermented cereal gruel Ogiprepared under strict hygienic conditions. They were identified using classical and molecular methods. Technological properties of the organisms which include production of exo-polysaccarides, antimicrobial agents, enzymes, absence of biogenic amines were monitored using standard procedures.Yellow variety of tiger nut was obtained from Sabo market, in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The nuts were sorted, cleaned, washed and surface sterilized before the tiger nuts were milled and sieved with 45um mesh size to obtain the milk. The milk was pasteurized at 85^oC for 15minutes and fermented in three different batches, the first batch was fermented spontaneously, second batch with LAB isolates from Ogi and the third batch with strains from yoghurt; it was packaged as improved tiger nut yoghurt as weaning foods. The raw tiger nut and produced yoghurt were analyzed for theirphysicochemical, nutritional, anti-nutritional and organoleptic  properties. The shelf life of the starter –mediated yoghurt was also studied.