Background: Sour cassava starch is used as an alternative to wheat flour in breadmaking. However, its nutritional and technological properties are limited. To remedy this, the use of legumes has proved to be very successful. Thus, the present study aimed to determine the optimal condition for the production of bread made from sour cassava starch, peanut, cowpea and soybean flour. Methods: The I-optimal design was employed to obtain an optimal proportion of the mixture with the variables sour cassava starch, cowpea, soy and peanut flour. The responses evaluated were overall acceptability, specific volume and protein content. Results: It resulted that the incorporation of sour cassava starch positively influenced the volume but negatively influenced the protein content and overall acceptability. While the addition of legumes increased protein content and overall consumer acceptability, the specific volume was reduced. The optimal proportions of sour cassava starch, cowpea, soybean and peanut flour were 64.11%, 18.92%, 0% and 16.96%, respectively. Under this condition, it led to a desirability of 1, specific volume of 1.35, overall acceptability of 6.13, protein content of 9.72%, carbohydrate content of 67.89%, fat content of 9.39%, fiber content of 2.10% and ash content of 1.04%. Conclusions: The findings suggest that cowpea and peanut can be used for the improvement of the technological, nutritional and sensory properties of sour cassava starch bread and thus increase its consumption and application in the food processing industry.

Protein-energy malnutrition and mineral deficiencies in children under five years are major problems in developing countries. The present study was thus carried out with the aim of proposing a weaning flour based on parboiled rice, spirulina, and cashew nut that meets the nutritional needs of children aged 06 to 24 months. To achieve this, the mixture design approach (a 9-point augmented simplex-centroid design) was used to obtain optimal blend of flour. The responses evaluated where proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, minerals (iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, magnesium, and zinc), carotenoids, fibers, and ash content. The rheological analyses (rapid viscosity analysis) were carried out on the optimal flour. It results that the optimal proportion of parboiled rice, spirulina, and cashew nut was, respectively, 85.80, 5.96, and 8.23. These conditions result in a protein, lipids, carbohydrates, carotenoids, ash, fibers, calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc content of 14.15%, 9.04%, 68.46%, 8.2 mg, 3% ash, 4.98%, 510 mg, 16 mg, 65 mg, and 5 mg, respectively, and an energy value of 411.8 kcal. These optimate conditions resulted also in a peak viscosity of 60 cP and a final viscosity of 86 cP which are lower than the established value (1000 cP). Thus, the weaning flour based on parboiled rice, spirulina, and cashew nut obtained in these optimate conditions can meet the nutritional needs of children aged 06 to 24 months and is therefore an efficient weaning food to fight against child malnutrition.

Safou (Dacryodes edulis H.J.Lam) is a seasonal fruit of great importance in the diet and economy of the populations of safou-producing countries. However, the valorization of this fruit is limited due to postharvest losses linked to the softening of the fruit, though this fruit is an essential source of macro- and micronutrients. Thus, this study is aimed at contributing to the valorization of softened safou by determining the optimum softening time, drying time, and temperature for good nutritional and rheological flour. The effects of the softening time, drying time, and drying temperature on the fat, protein, carbohydrate, dietary fibre, water, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium content were studied using the central composite design. The results showed that all the responses were affected by the factors. Also, the softening time of 4.75 days, drying time of 40.55 hours, and drying temperature of 41.83C were the optimum conditions for producing safou flour with high nutritional value and good rheological properties. These optimum conditions resulted in safou flour with 58.95, 12.40, 22.40, 4.38, 4.91, 2207.90mg/1000mg, 1898.30mg/1000mg, and 478.540mg/1000mg as lipid, protein, carbohydrates, fibre, moisture calcium, phosphorus, and potassium content, respectively. In addition, the pasting temperature, peak viscosity, breakdown, holding viscosity, final viscosity, setback, setback ratio, and stability ratio of the aforementioned flour were 50.42C, 58cp, 0.5cp, 57.5cp, 61.5cp, 4cp, 1.07, and 1, respectively. Based on its nutritional value and rheological properties, softened safou flour can be used in food formulation, thus contributing to the valorization of safou fruits.

Nixtamalization is a process used in the production of tortillas. This process offers many advantages, such as improving the rheological, nutritional, and textural properties of the masa. This process is carried out under different steps which affect the quality of the final product such as the cooking and soaking conditions and the quantity of ash. In addition, the fragility of the masa makes the tortillas brittle. The present work was initiated with the aim of determining the nixtamalization conditions that would improve the textural, rheological, and nutritional properties of masa. The response surface methodology, using the central composite design was applied to three factors including the ash content and cooking and soaking times, and the responses evaluated were the adhesiveness, cohesion, final viscosity, and gelatinization temperature of masa obtained from two varieties of maize (Atp-Y and Kassaï). The optimums masa flours obtained were characterized using standard methods. Results showed that, the masa made from Kassaï variety needed a cooking time of 51.21 min and soaking time of 16.10 h in the presence of 0.80 g of ash. For the Atp-Y variety, the conditions included a cooking time of 49.17 min and a soaking time of 23.4 h in the presence of 0.24 g of ash. The responses obtained showed an adhesiveness of 0.10 kg/f and 0.05 kg/f, cohesion of 1.08 kg/f and 1.23 kg/f, final viscosity of 1504.80 cP and 1328.30 cP, gelatinization temperature 73.50 °C and 71.50 °C, and finally retrogradation 435.50 cP and 316 cP, respectively, for Kassaï and Atp-Y. Chemical characterization of the optimum masa showed that the white masa had a high protein content (10.50%), carbohydrates (71.70%), and fiber (2%) while the yellow masa presented the highest lipid content (5.47%). These finding demonstrated that Kassaï (white) maize‐masa flour obtained in optimal conditions can be recommended for the production of good quality tortillas because tortillas made with this masa are less crumbly and more elastic.

Rice fritter is a fermented food produced using traditional technology, and its consumption has become important these last years. However, as its technological production is not well mastered due to multitude production processes, information on the production process and the nutritional value of rice fritters remains unknown. This study was designed to produce rice fritters with good nutritional value by standardizing its production. A randomized cross‐study was carried out, and knowledge on the production process and the ingredients’ origin was collected from 298 consumers and 104 producers of 7 cities of Cameroon (Bafoussam, Banyo, Foumban, Foumbot, Yaoundé, Ngaoundéré, and Maroua). It was a randomize cross‐study. Thus, the nutritional characterization of rice fritters marked and the rheological properties of rice flours commonly used were carried out in the laboratory by using standardized methods. About 93.3% people producing rice fritter were women, from the north (40.4%) and permanent traders (60.6%). Moreover, 83.7% of producers used a mixture of rice–wheat flour while 16.3% used only rice flour. Producers used both local and imported rice grains. Marketed rice fritters contained ash (1.38%–2.17%), proteins (7.19%–10.35%), lipids (13.82%–21.72%), fibers (1.38%–2.54%), and carbohydrates (67.16%–74.17%). Independently of collection city and although the production steps were identical, some differences recorded in the step of making dough led to four commonly used production processes and fritters made by Process 2 (which differed from the others especially with the addition of milk (100–200 mL)) had the highest macro‐ and micronutrient contents.