Search results

In Nigeria, soymilk and fried soy‐cheese are common street‐vended foods sold in market places, motor‐parks, streets and schools. Many processors of these soy‐foods are women using the soy‐food business to generate income in supporting their families. They have little or no knowledge about good manufacturing practices and good hygiene practices. Careless exposure of prepared foods to environmental contamination is quiet noticeable. The purpose of this paper is to assess microbial hazards and critical control points (CCPs) in the processing of locally processed fried soy‐cheese from different areas in Oyo State, South‐West Nigeria.

Soy‐cheese processors were visited. Samples of water used for processing, fermented maize liquor used as coagulant and fried soy‐cheese were collected for microbial analysis. CCPs were analyzed.

Higher microbial load was recorded in the coagulant samples (≤10⁶ Cfu/ml) and in the fried soy‐cheese displayed for sale (≤10³ Cfu/ml). Pathogenic micro‐organisms: Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli were characterized from the collected samples. Coliforms were present in samples collected.

The paper shows that these processors need to be trained in food safety practices to reduce health risks associated with consumption of these locally processed foods.

The study aims to investigate the potential of green immature soybean among Nigeria soybean varieties as human food.

Five Nigeria soybean varieties were harvested at 90 days old. The fresh green immature soybean seed were evaluated for chemical composition, physical and sensory characteristics. The physical characteristics looked into seed size (breadth and length), weight, seed colour, hull thickness and percentage of hydration. The chemical composition was compared to mature soybean seeds while the sensory attributes were compared to fresh green peas.

The raw mature soybean (RMS) was significantly higher and lower in chemical composition and anti‐nutritional factors respectively. The highest moisture content ranges from 62.8 per cent in TGX 1019‐2^EB to 65.4 per cent in TGX 1485‐1^D. The protein content (15.3 per cent) was highest in TGX1485‐1^D and lowest value in TGX1448‐2^E. The level of tannin was significantly higher in TGX1448‐2^E and 923‐2^E while trypsin inhibitor was significantly (p<0.05) higher in TGX1440‐1^E and TGX1485‐1^D. TGX1485‐1^D had superior physical characteristics to other immature varieties with significant (p<0.05) higher value for breadth, length and height. The hull thickness of the seeds was within 0.01 to 0.05 and the percentage of hydration ranges within 5.5 to 6.8 per cent. All varieties had a green colour for the seed coat. Overall sensory acceptability of TGX TGX1440‐1^E, 1485‐1^D and 1019‐2^EB compared favourably well with green peas used as control for sensory evaluation.

This study could help to identify the potential of some Nigerian soybean cultivars for production for use as a source of vegetable in the diet and also provided valuable information for further improvement of soybean for food uses.

The purpose of this study is to determine and compare the nutritional status of children aged 5‐10 years attending private (fee paying‐FP) and public (non‐fee paying‐NFP) primary schools in Ibadan South‐West Local Government Area (ISWLGA) of Oyo State, Nigeria.

Anthropometry method was used in the study. Two basic variables (height and weight) and a single derived variable (body mass index‐BMI) were utilized. All the anthropometric measurements were taken following standard techniques.

The prevalence of malnutrition was significantly higher (p<0.05) in the NFP pupils than in the FP pupils. The incidence of stunting, underweight and wasting among NFP pupils (boys and girls) was 44.8 percent and 43.05 percent; 41.07 percent and 38.88 percent; 43.59 percent and 40.29 percent, respectively. For the pupils from FP schools, the incidence of stunting, underweight and wasting, respectively, (boys and girls) was 34.21 percent and 27.77 percent; 30.70 percent and 27.77 percent; 27.19 percent and 5.55 percent. Higher percentages of boys were malnourished in the two groups of pupils studied.

The study was limited to Ibadan South‐West local Government Area of Oyo state, Nigeria; it does not give a holistic view of the nutritional status of Nigerian school children.

The results of this study, shows that the average school child in Ibadan, Nigeria is under nourished. Also, higher percentages of boys were malnourished in the two groups of pupils studied. Urgent steps should therefore be taken to meet the nutritional needs of the children.