Tilapia consumption patterns and consumer preferences: Predictors and perspectives of consumers in Ghana.

The objective of this study was to assess consumer behaviour towards tilapia and tilapia products and provide information linking production with consumption patterns and preferences as well as to predict factors that influence consumer preference, purchase behaviour, and willingness to patronize tilapia fillets using classification and regression trees. A total of 960 responses were obtained using convenient sampling. The findings of this survey indicate that tilapia is eaten mainly because of its taste.

Pesticides residues in leafy green vegetables and irrigation waters in Accra, Ghana.

Pesticides are used in vegetable farming to control pests and diseases, reduce crop losses and improve yield. The study examined pesticide residues in irrigation waters and leafy green vegetables grown in some farming areas in Accra, Ghana. Three types of irrigation water sources ( = 23) and two exotic and four indigenous Ghanaian leafy vegetables ( = 34) from 10 farming areas in Accra, Ghana were collected and examined for 15 organochlorines, 13 organophosphorus and 9 synthetic pyrethroids pesticide residues using the modified QuEChERS procedure.

Application of Frafra potato () flour in the development of gluten-free bread.

The rising cost of wheat flour and incidences of celiac disease, an intolerance to gluten in wheat products, have created the need to explore ingredients, especially alternative flours, for developing gluten-free products. This study examined the performance of Frafra potato flour (FPF), a nutritious lesser-known indigenous crop, in the production of bread using a novel dough-conditioners (egg-gelatin combinations), and Transglutaminase blend to improve the product properties. The developed product was evaluated for physicochemical and sensory characteristics.

Chicken Feather Protein Dispersant for Effective Crude Oil Dispersion in the Marine Environment.

Various studies report that aside from the adverse impact of the crude oil on the marine environment, there is the likelihood that chemical dispersants used on the surface of water as oil-treating agents themselves possess a degree of toxicity, which have additional effects on the environment. To eliminate the subject of toxicity, there exist several materials in nature that have the ability to form good emulsions, and such products include protein molecules. In this study, chicken feathers which are known to contain ≥90% protein were used to formulate a novel dispersant to disperse crude oil in seawater (35 ppt).

Drying Characteristics and Microbiological Quality Assessment of Solar-Dried Tomato.

Tomato () is an important vegetable used in cooking most local foods in Ghana. At the peak season of harvesting, high loses are incurred because of the absence of tomato processing facilities to store, process, and extend the shelf life of fresh tomatoes. Solar drying has been proven to be a more efficient and low-cost method of enhancing quality and adding value to tomato and other vegetables.

Non-thermal pretreatment affects Ginkgo biloba L. seed's product qualities, sensory, and physicochemical properties.

Drying plays a significant role in Ginkgo biloba seed's (GBS) processing, and the previous research showed drying affected the product quality. A combined hurdle drying technology (integrated non-thermal pretreatment and drying) could be applied on GBS to achieve better product quality. Osmotic (OS), osmo-vacuum (OS + V), sonication (US), and osmosonication (OS + US) pretreatment followed by infrared drying was performed on GBS, and the product qualities (texture, color, enzyme inactivation, water activity, and microstructure), physicochemical properties (titrable acidity, reducing sugar, soluble solids, total sugar, free amino acid, and ascorbic acid), and organoleptic qualities were evaluated.

Sensory profiling and consumer evaluation of solar dried tomato powder in Ghana.

Background: Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is an important vegetable in Ghana, with high post-harvest losses due to absence of facilities to store, process and extend the shelf life of fresh tomatoes. Solar drying has been proven to be a more efficient and low-cost method of enhancing quality and adding value to tomato and other vegetables. However, there are concerns about sensory appeal of the dried products.

Development of a Mobile Application Platform for Self-Management of Obesity Using Artificial Intelligence Techniques.

Obesity is a major global health challenge and a risk factor for the leading causes of death, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and several types of cancer. Attempts to manage and regulate obesity have led to the implementation of various dietary regulatory initiatives to provide information on the calorie contents of meals. Although knowledge of the calorie content is useful for meal planning, it is not sufficient as other factors, including health status (diabetes, hypertension, etc.

Sensory Acceptability and Proximate Composition of 3-Blend Plant-Based Dairy Alternatives.

Limitations of plant-based dairy alternatives as sustainable foods are their relatively low protein content and low sensory appeal. In this study, we used a consumer-led product development approach to improve the sensory appeal of existing prototypes of 3-blend dairy alternatives produced from melon seeds, peanuts and coconut. We used Relative Preference Mapping (RPM) and consumer acceptance testing using the 9-point hedonic scale to respectively identify innovative flavours and deduce the effect of ingredient components on consumer sensory appeal.

The effect of vinegar and drying (Solar and Open Sun) on the microbiological quality of ginger () rhizomes.

This study evaluated the influence of 10% vinegar and solar drying using two solar dryers and open-sun drying on the microbiological quality of ginger ( Roscoe) rhizome. The rhizomes were analyzed for bacterial, mold, and populations in the raw state, which were water-washed and soaked in 10% vinegar, and in dried form. The fungal population was isolated and identified.

Effect of pretreatment on physicochemical, microbiological, and aflatoxin quality of solar sliced dried ginger ( Roscoe) rhizome.

Pretreatment of fruit and vegetables is necessary to reduce microbial proliferation and to preserve color of the produce. The effect of drying and pretreatment with potassium metabisulfite (KMBS) of concentrations 0.0%, 0.

Sonication, osmosonication and vacuum-assisted osmosonication pretreatment of Ghanaian garlic slices: Effect on physicochemical properties and quality characteristics.

This work aimed to assess the impact of sonication (US), osmosonication (US + OD) and vacuum-assisted osmosonication (V + US + OD) pretreatments on the quality of Ghanaian garlic prior to relative humidity convective drying. Hence, slices of fresh garlic subjected to US, US + OD and V + US + OD pretreatments were dried and the following assessed: antioxidant activities, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), polyphenol oxidase (PPO) enzyme inactivation, rehydration ratio (RR), drying kinetics, energy consumption, chromatographic fingerprinting, allicin content and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. V + US + OD pretreatment gave the best results for antioxidant activities, TPC, TFC, RR and PPO enzyme inactivation.

Design and Development of Diabetes Management System Using Machine Learning.

This paper describes the design and implementation of a software system to improve the management of diabetes using a machine learning approach and to demonstrate and evaluate its effectiveness in controlling diabetes. The proposed approach for this management system handles the various factors that affect the health of people with diabetes by combining multiple artificial intelligence algorithms. The proposed framework factors the diabetes management problem into subgoals: building a Tensorflow neural network model for food classification; thus, it allows users to upload an image to determine if a meal is recommended for consumption; implementing K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN) algorithm to recommend meals; using cognitive sciences to build a diabetes question and answer chatbot; tracking user activity, user geolocation, and generating pdfs of logged blood sugar readings.

Development and Sensory Shelf-Life Testing of KOKO Plus: A Food Supplement for Improving the Nutritional Profiles of Traditional Complementary Foods.

Background: Providing nutritionally adequate complementary foods is essential in preventing malnutrition in young infants. made from fermented corn dough constitutes the most common complementary food in Ghana. However, these do not meet the nutrient requirements.

Consumer knowledge, preference, and perceived quality of dried tomato products in Ghana.

Postharvest losses (PHL) are incurred in the tomato value chain in Ghana and solar drying of tomato is a promising technology for reducing the loss. However, there are concerns on the usage, functionality and sensory appeal of the dried products to consumers, compounded with the lack of information and research on dried tomato processing in Ghana. A survey was carried out by administering semistructured questionnaires to 395 randomly selected and willing respondents in the Accra Metropolis.

Soybean-Enriched Snacks Based on African Rice.

Snacks were produced by extruding blends of partially-defatted soybean flour with flours from milled or parboiled African-grown rice. The interplay between composition and processing in producing snacks with a satisfactory sensory profile was addressed by e-sensing, and by molecular and rheological approaches. Soybean proteins play a main role in defining the properties of the protein network in the products.

Impact of Cowpea-Based Food Containing Fish Meal Served With Vitamin C-Rich Drink on Iron Stores and Hemoglobin Concentrations in Ghanaian Schoolchildren in a Malaria Endemic Area.

Background: Nutritional anemia is a public health problem among Ghanaian schoolchildren. There is need to employ dietary modification strategies to solve this problem through school and household feeding programs.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of cowpea-based food containing fish meal served with vitamin C-rich drink to improve iron stores and hemoglobin concentrations in Ghanaian schoolchildren.

Optimisation of enzymatic hydrolysis of cassava peel to produce fermentable sugars.

Enzymatic hydrolysis of cassava peels was evaluated using cellulase and beta-glucanase enzymes and their mixtures at three different enzyme loadings with time. The pH of the medium used for hydrolysis was 5 and the temperature was 50 °C. The efficiency of the hydrolysis using beta-glucanase was better than cellulase and glucose recovery of 69 % was realised when beta-glucanase dosage was increased to 10 % (v/w) at 48 h which rose to 73 % at 120 h, releasing 11.

Spatial distribution of total phenolic content, enzymatic activities and browning in white yam (Dioscorea rotundata) tubers.

Browning in raw and processed yams resulting from enzymes, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD), activities is a major limitation to the industrial utilization of Dioscorea varieties of yams. Two elite cultivars of D. rotundata species were selected to study the spatial distribution of total phenols and enzymes (PPO and POD) activities.

Polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAHs and oxygenated PAHs) and trace metals in fish species from Ghana (West Africa): bioaccumulation and health risk assessment.

We report the concentrations of 28 PAHs, 15 oxygenated PAHs (OPAHs) and 11 trace metals/metalloids (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, and Zn) in muscle and gut+gill tissues of demersal fishes (Drapane africana, Cynoglossus senegalensis and Pomadasys peroteti) from three locations along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea (Ghana). The concentrations of ∑28PAHs in muscle tissues averaged 192ngg(-1) dw (range: 71-481ngg(-1) dw) and were not statistically different between locations. The concentrations of ∑28 PAHs were higher in guts+gills than in muscles.

Chemical composition and physical quality characteristics of Ghanaian cocoa beans as affected by pulp pre-conditioning and fermentation.

Investigations were conducted to evaluate the effects of pod storage (as a means of pulp preconditioning) and fermentation on the chemical composition and physical characteristics of Ghanaian cocoa beans. A 4 × 2 full factorial design with factors as pod storage (0, 7, 14, 21 days) and cocoa treatment (fermented and unfermented) were conducted. Samples were analyzed for their chemical composition (moisture, crude fat, crude protein, ash and carbohydrate content) and mineral content using standard analytical methods.

The effect of thermal and ultrasonic treatment on amino acid composition, radical scavenging and reducing potential of hydrolysates obtained from simulated gastrointestinal digestion of cowpea proteins.

The effect of thermal and ultrasonic treatment of cowpea proteins (CP) on amino acid composition, radical scavenging and reducing potential of hydrolysates (CPH) obtained from in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion of CP was evaluated. Hydrolysis of native and treated CP with gastrointestinal pepsin and pancreatin yielded CPH that displayed antioxidant activities based on oxygen radical scavenging capacity (ORAC), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and superoxide radical scavenging activity (SRSA). CPH derived from the treated CP yielded higher ORAC values than CPH from untreated proteins.

Formulation of a drinkable peanut-based therapeutic food for malnourished children using plant sources.

High ingredient costs continue to hamper local production of therapeutic foods (TFs). Development of formulations without milk, the most expensive ingredient, is one way of reducing cost. This study formulated a ready-to-drink peanut-based TF that matched the nutrient composition of F100 using plant sources.