Pasting Properties of Quality Protein Maize and Teff Composite Flours

Quality protein maize (QPM) is a type of biofortified maize, and contains lysine and tryptophan which are the essential amino acids for growth and development. Increasing the consumption of food products prepared from quality protein maize is the ideal solution to tackle protein deficiency related problems. Teff is a staple food crops in Ethiopia. It is gluten free cereal grains, and has great potential to be formulated into a range of food and beverage products. Flour pasting properties are one of the most important quality parameter and its affects texture, digestibility, and end use of the food products. The study was aimed to evaluate the effect of blending ratio and varieties on pasting properties of QPM-teff composite flours. Quality protein maize flours from two varieties were blended with teff flour at the ratio of 70:30, 60:40, and 100% (QPM) was taken as a control sample. Peak viscosity, trough viscosity, breakdown viscosity, final viscosity, setback viscosity, and pasting time of the composite flour samples ranged from 520.50 to 1068.50 cP, 491.50 to 802.00 cP, 29.00 to 266.50 cP, 1232.00 to 2358.50 cP, 740.50 to 1556.50 cP, and 5.04 to 5.70 mins due to blending ratio, and from 598.17 to 956.00 cP, 519.83 to 774.83 cP, 78.33 to 181.17 cP, 1391.67 to 2297.00 cP, 871.83 to 1522.17 cP, and 5.15 to 5.28 mins due to varieties, respectively.