Shelf Life Studies Of Cocoa-Based Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Foods.

ABSTRACT

The shelf life of therapeutic foods developed from a mixture of cocoa, bambaranut and corn were studied. A multiple regression model was used to develop models for the analysis. the cocoa based ready-to-use therapeutic foods was analysed for moisture contents, free sugar, peroxide value, alcoholic acidity and microbial load. The moisture contents of 7.lig remains stable for day 1 to day 7 in (65:15:20 and 60:20:20) respectively. Results further show that moisture content decreases from 8.04 at day 1 to 8.03 at day 7 and a further decrease in moisture content of 65:15:20, 75:15:10 and 60:20:20 from day 1 to day 28 of storage. The results of peroxide value show that there was a decrease in 65:15:20, 75:15:10 and 60:20:20 from day ito day 7 and an increase in day 14 to day 21 but decreases in day 28 of storage. The microbial analysis indicated that 65:15:20, 75:15:10 and 60:20:20 had growths of