CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADITIONAL SNACKS PRODUCED FROM CITRULLUS VULGARIS S, GLYCINE MAX L, ARACHIS HYPOGEA L AND SCLEROTIUM TUBERYGII

 
Melon snack was produced by the conventional method in which melon and ground yeast was used as the main ingredients, in addition to other ingredients. The proportion of melon and ground yeast were varied while the other ingredients were kept constant so as to determine the best combination that would give a good quality snack. The combination of 70% melon, 8.81% ground yeast and 21.19% other ingredients was used as the control sample, since this combination formed the best dough needed for the production of the best quality snack. Melon was then replaced with 10–70% concentrations of soybean and groundnut to determine their effect on product quality. The snacks were processed with different quantity of processing water (16 – 24ml), packaged with different packaging materials (plantain leaves, polyethylene and aluminium foil) and cooked for different periods of time (1 – 9 hours). Analyses were carried out on the snacks for proximate composition, antinutrient content, sensory properties, hardness and compressive strength, vitamins B1 and B2 and amino acid content. The results showed that snacks obtained from 10–20% and 10–30% substitution of melon with soybean and groundnut, respectively, were of acceptable qualities, with 10% level of substitution having the best acceptability. The results also showed that the best melon snack (65.7g) was processed with 20ml of water, packaged with plantain leaves and cooked for 5 hours. Snacks in which melon was substituted with 10% and 20% soybean had moisture content of 50.56% and 52.60%, protein content of 19.01% and 20.00%, fat content of 5.01% and 4.22%, ash content of 5.05% and 4.85%, crude fibre content of 2.87% and 2.33% and carbohydrate content of 17.5% and 16.0%, respectively. Snacks in which melon was substituted with 10–70% groundnut had ranges of moisture content from 48.35–50.01%, protein content from 19.27– 21.09%, fat content from 8.13–8.81%, ash content from 3.37–4.93%, crude fibre content from 2.62–3.69% and carbohydrate content from 14.10–15.63%. The vitamin B1 content of the snacks decreased as the percentage of substitution with both soybean and groundnut increased. Snacks that contained soybean lost their vitamin B2 while the vitamin B2 content of snacks that contained groundnut increased as the percentage of substitution with groundnut was increased. The hardness and compressive strength values of the snacks increased as the percentage of substitution with soybean increased and decreased as the percentage of the substitution with groundnut increased due to higher content of oil in groundnut. Snacks that contained 10% soybean and 10% groundnut had higher content of amino acids than the control snack.