ABSTRACT

Wheat is one of the most widely consumed grain globally, it is a staple ingredient in many households, particularly for making biscuit, bread, pasta, puff-puff, spring rolls, meat pies and other baked goods. Wheat is reach in carbohydrates, fibre, and essential nutrients like iron, selenium, and B vitamins while sweet potato is a tuber crop with high potential for flour production. It represents an adequate and cheap substitute for wheat in the production of wheat-based products. Subsequently, biscuits which are one of the most popular cereal foods are usually made from wheat flour together with fat and sugar. The aim of the study is to produce biscuit from sweet potato and wheat flour blend. Wheat flour and orange sweet potato flour was used for this study in the ratio of  70% wheat flour and 30% orange flesh-sweet potato (WF₇₀: OFSP₃₀), 80% wheat flour and 20% orange flesh-sweet potato (WF₈₀: OFSP₂₀) and100% wheat flour blend (WF₁₀₀) which served as control. Proximate analysis was done to determine the moisture content, protein content, fat content, crude fiber, ash using standard method. Carbohydrate content was calculated by differences. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out on the data generated in this study using the  SPSS version 20.0 software. The analysed data were expressed as mean ±  SD (standard deviation). The Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) method was used to compare the means of experimental data at 95% confidence interval. Subsequently ssensory evaluation of biscuits produced from composite of wheat and orange flesh-sweet potato were also obtained. The result show that the protein content of WF₁₀₀ was the highest (12.06%) while WF₇₀: OFSP₃₀ had the lowest (10.00%) content. Fat content of the biscuits reduced significantly with WF₁₀₀ having the highest value of 8.80% while WF₇₀: OFSP₃₀ had the lowest value of 7.90%. There was significant (P<0.05) difference in all the sample. The ash content of WF₇₀: OFSP₃₀ has the highest value of 2.98% while WF₁₀₀ had the lowest of 2.41%. There was significant (P<0.05) difference among the samples. The crude fibre content of the biscuits from the composite flour was significantly higher than that of the (WF₁₀₀) which might have resulted from high fibre content of OFSP. The biscuit showed significant (P<0.05) decrease in carbohydrate. The carbohydrate content was significantly reduced with inclusion of orange flesh sweet potato. Sensory evaluation of biscuits produced from composite of wheat and orange flesh-sweet potato showed a significant improvement on taste, flavor and mouth feel of the biscuit. Therefore, the study then concluded that the blend of wheat flour and orange flesh-sweet potato could be used to produce biscuit snacks that are nutritious and good for human consumption. It is recommended that consumption of this product will go a long way in solving the problem of malnutrition in developing countries.