Millet is an important nutritious ancient minor cereal food crop. This work reviews the composition, functional properties and food application of millet grains. The review shows that this cereal grains is a good source of carbohydrate and starch, with minute proteins, fat, vitamins and other nutrients. The functional properties of the cereal grains (Millet) was also evaluated and the findings gotten from various authors shows that the grains has a good functional properties in terms of their bulk density, oil absorption capacity, water absorption capacity, least gelatinization temperature and host of others. The pasting properties were also researched on and various authors attested to the potentiality of the grains in terms of the pasting properties. The food applications of the grains was not left out since the basic essence of this review is to see to the betterment of the livelihood of human, as such the various foods that can be produced from these grains were also looked into foods like millet ball “Fura”, tuwo, gruel, alcoholic beverages (like pito, burukutu) and non-alcoholic beverages (like “kunu zaki”) where all examined and conclusively the grains were rich sources of meals.

This review work is on the composition, functional properties and food applications of sorghum grains. The review shows that this cereal grains is a rich source of carbohydrate and starch, with little of proteins, fat, vitamins and other nutrients. The functional properties of sorghum were also explored and the findings gotten from various authors shows that sorghum has good functional properties in terms of its bulk density, oil absorption capacity, water absorption capacity, least gelatinization temperature and host of others. The food applications of the grains such as sorghum ball “Fura”, tuwo, gruel, alcoholic beverages such as pito, burukutu and non-alcoholic beverages such as “kunu zaki” were extensively explored to understand and appreciate the profound benefit of sorghum as a diversely rich and nutritious source of food especially in Africa.

Quality cassava(Manihotesculentus, Crantz) flour is often influenced by process variables such as slice weight and soaking time which may affect its nutritional quality. In this study, the effect of process variables (slice weight and soaking time) on quality of cassava flour was carried out. Cassava root was peeled, washed and cut into varied sizes (25.86 - 54.14 g) and soaked at varied time (7.03 - 40.97 h). The proximate composition, physical and chemical properties of the flour were carried out using standard methods. The result in our findings showed that slice weight and soaking time had significant increase (p<0.05) on the proximate and physico-chemical properties of the flour.The amylose and amylopectin content of the flour increased with increasing soaking time while the hydrogen cyanide content decreased with increase in soaking time. Overall, the quality cassava flour displayed desirable properties for its incorporation into baked goods.

Custard is a thick, rich, creamy sweet or savory dessert, made mixtures of eggs or egg yolks, milk or cream and commonly consumed in most part of Africa especially Nigeria. This research was carried out to determine the physicochemical properties and sensory characteristics of custard produced from the blends of sweet potato and corn starch enriched with defatted soybean flour. The sweet potato was peeled, washed and diced into small cubes to aid milling while the maize grains were cleaned and soaked in water for 24 hours, and they were separately milled and filtered. The filtrates were allowed to settle for four hours, the starches were obtained and dried at 70°C and 60°C for 8 hours and 5 hours respectively. The soybean was cleaned, soaked, boiled, toasted, dehulled, milled and defatted in petroleum ether. Ten custard samples were then formulated using sweet potato starch, corn starch and defatted soybean flour respectively in the following ratios: 100:0:0; 80:10:10; 70:20:10; 60:30:10; 50:40:10; 40:50:10; 30:60:10; 20:70:10; 10:80:10; 0:100:0. The custard formulations were evaluated for their physicochemical and sensory characteristics, using commercial custard (Checkers custard) as control. The result of the proximate composition showed that moisture, ash, crude fibre, crude protein and carbohydrate content in % ranged from 5.40-18.08, 0.70-3.07, 1.16-6.52, 0.82-5.23, 1.31-9.91 and 68.87-85.25, respectively. The functional properties also showed that least gelation concentration (%), bulk density (g/cm), swelling power and gelatinization temperature (oC) ranged from 4.00-10.00; 0.59-0.83; 6.37-8.02 and 69.2-80.1, respectively. The result showed that the swelling power differed significantly (p<0.05) from each other and some of the samples differed significantly in bulk density, least gelation and gelatinization temperature, respectively. Sensory evaluation carried out on different samples of the custard formulation showed that the control sample (Checkers custard) had the highest score of overall acceptability. The 100% corn starch and 100% sweet potato starch were accepted by the consumers as an alternative to the commercial custard product. The enrichment of custard with soybean contributed to an increase in the nutritional value of the custard.