Simegn Serka, Dereje Getahun, Kebede Abegaz
Kocho, a nutritionally poor food product of enset, is prepared from the bulk of starch obtained from a mixture of decorticated leaf sheaths and grated corm of enset. This study was intended to formulate flat bread from kocho blended with broad bean and Quality Protein Maize (QPM) and evaluate its nutritional and sensory quality. Flat bread samples were prepared from blends of kocho, broad bean and quality protein maize flours at different ratios: 50:35:15, 50:30:20, 50:25:25 and 50:20:30 respectively. Control flat bread was prepared from 100% kocho. Consumer-oriented sensory evaluation of the formulated flat breads was conducted using 5 point hedonic scale. Proximate composition, selected minerals’ and anti-nutrients’ contents were analyzed. It was found that crude protein content was increased from 1.72% (control flat bread) to 11.35% (flat bread prepared from blends of 50:35:15 kocho, broad bean and QPM respectively); the crude fat content was increased from 0.83% to 3.06%. All of the formulated flat breads were accepted for the sensory attributes; the 50%:25%:25% blending ratio showed the highest overall acceptability, 3.92. It was concluded that blending kocho with broad bean and QPM could improve the nutritional value of flat bread with acceptable sensory quality.