Quality Evaluation of a Ready-To-Eat Breakfast Cereal (Muesli) Made from Selected Nigerian Indigenous Food Crops

Production of high quality and well packaged multi-cereal product is lacking in Nigerian and muesli which is mostly imported is scantly circulated. Thus, this study aimed at producing and assessing the qualities of muesli made from Nigerian food crops. Muesli was produced from two different combinations of separately processed food crops (i.e cereal, tuber, nuts, fruit) and a commercially produced muesli served as the control. The muesli samples were assessed for their functional properties, nutritional composition, sensory qualities and cost of production. The samples were stored for eight weeks (28°C ±2) during which total bacterial and fungal counts were determined at two weeks interval. All analyses were done in triplicate and data was subjected to Analysis of variance (P< 0.05) and means were separated by Duncan Multiple Range Tests. Results showed that the muesli samples had the same bulk density (0.63 ±0.00 g/ml) which was not significantly different from the control (0.61 ±0.00 g/ml) while the swelling capacity (113.33±23.09 % and 106.67±32.32 %) of the two muesli samples was significantly different from the control. The control was significantly different in moisture content (7.21%) and carbohydrate (62.51%) content while the muesli samples were significantly different in crude protein (9.93 %), crude fat (14. 67 %), crude fibre (7.05 %), ash content (6.13 %), and energy (394.03 Kcal). At the end of the storage period the total bacteria count was 3.0 x 10-1 and total fungal count was 2 x 10-1 for the muesli samples while there was no growth in the control. The muesli samples were not significantly different from the commercial muesli in colour but were significantly different in other sensory attributes. The cost analysis showed the retail price of commercial muesli to be 192 % to 203 % of the production cost of the muesli samples.