Common beans are an important source of energy and nutrients, but have significant amounts of
antinutritional factors and a limited digestibility. A nutritious weaning food was developed by
combining fermented black beans and rice. Raw beans were coarsely ground, soaked, cooked,
fermented with Rhizopus oligosporus for 15, 20, or 25 h, and then homogenized to obtain a
supernatant and a precipitate. Raw, cooked, and fermented beans, and the precipitates were
chemically characterized and the data statistically analyzed to choose an optimum fermentation
time to develop the weaning food product. Ash and mineral contents of the beans decreased after
soaking and in the precipitates. Cooking improved protein digestibility and decreased the levels of
lectin and trypsin inhibitor. The oligosaccharide content of beans fermented 25 h was lower than in
the other treatments. The weaning food product (27% 25 h fermented beans, dry weight/73% cooked
rice, dry weight) had an in vitro protein digestibility of 86% and a very low content of oligosaccharides.
Keywords: Dry beans; Phaseolus vulgaris; fermentation; tempeh-like products; weaning foods
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