Nutritional and sensory properties of a maize-based snack food (kokoro) supplemented with treated Distillers' spent grain (DSG)

The effect of treated Distillers' spent grain (DSG) supplementation on the nutritional and sensory properties of kokoro, a maize-based snack, was investigated. Treated DSG was used to replace 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30% and 35% of maize flour. Mean water absorption capacity of DSG was 291%, swelling capacity 2.27 bulk density was 58%, oil absorption capacity 216, protein content of 27% and a total dietary fibre content 24.2%. The swelling, water and oil absorption capacities of the flour blends increased while bulk density decreased significantly. The ash, fat, protein, insoluble and total dietary fibre and total nonessential and essential amino acids contents of the flour blends increased with DSG inclusion. Processing the flour blends to kokoro slightly increased the ash, fat and protein contents, while the total nonessential and essential amino acids, total sugar and total dietary fibre decreased. The addition of DSG increased the lysine and tryptophan contents of kokoro. Although the sensory evaluation results indicate that kokoro with 5%, 10% and 15% DSG were well accepted and compared favourably with those made from whole maize for overall acceptability, it was observed that generally, there is a consumer dislike of the new product as the amount of DSG added increased.