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Abstract

Maize-peanut balls (also known as dakua, dzowe or donkwa) is a street snack made from roasted, dried and milled maize and groundnuts/peanuts. It is often sold unpackaged by hawkers/vendors, in a portable food booth, food cart or food truck. However, the shelf life is unknown which makes this nutritious snack also a potential risk to consumers' health. In this study, the packaging and shelf life of maize-peanut balls (lab/self-made and those purchased from the local markets) were investigated by packaging in aluminum foil, flexible plastic films and unpackaged and stored at ambient temperature for 5 weeks. The products were analysed weekly for moisture, peroxide value, aflatoxin level, yeast and moulds during storage. Results indicate that the samples had variable moisture content, which decreased from the start of the analysis to the third week and increased again. Over the 5 weeks storage period, peroxide values increased to ~0.4 mEq/ kg. The unpackaged samples had the highest aflatoxin level (~21.74 ppb), which is above the acceptable limit of 20 ppb. The samples packaged in flexible plastic film, however, had the lowest aflatoxin level (~13.15 ppb) whereas samples packaged in aluminum foil had values of ~16.75 ppb. The estimated shelf life is approximately 8 weeks with flexible plastic films as the most suitable packaging material.