Effects of Blanching on the Qualities of Negro Pepper

*Akande E.A., Adesola M. O. And **Olunlade B.A.

*Corresponding author:Department of Food Science and Engineering, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, (+ 234), Nigeria. felemma@yahoo.com OR eaakande@lautech.edu.ng.

**Department of Food Science and Technology, BOWEN University, Iwo.

Accepted 14 March 2014

Abstract

Negro pepper is a spice with high nutritional values and several beneficial phytochemical compounds. The processing and storage of this spice has been known to have various effects on its qualities and so this study is on the effects of blanching on the qualities (nutritional, phytochemical and microbial) of the seeds. The seeds were steeped in 1500ml of water for 24hours. The steeped seeds were then placed on a tray and drained in a  78 + 2ºC steam cooker and was blanched under atmospheric pressure for 10, 20, 30 and 40 minutes. It was dried in the oven maintained at 45+ 2ºC for 24hours and then milled. The prepared samples of the seeds were subjected to Nutritional evaluation, phytochemical and microbial analysis using standard methods.  There are general increase in the samples nutrients with blanching time except the ash content that reduced from 2.33% to 2.12%. The same increment trend was obtained for the mineral content. There were reductions in the phytochemical compounds of the spice with blanching time: oxalate (0.64-0.21)gm/100g; tannin (0.74-0.18)gm/100g; saponin (0.75-0.17)gm/100g; phytate (0.20- 0.08)gm/100g and flavonoids (0.49-0.39)gm/100g. Blanching also reduces the microbial load with the total plate count (2.90 ×10⁴ -1.49 ×10⁴ and total fungi (0.01 ×10⁵ to 6.0 ×10²).  Conclusively, blanching in the vicinity of 10- 15 minutes can be adopted for use in handling the spice since the best nutrients retention and maximum phytochemical loss and reduction in the microbial load were observed in this vicinity.

Keywords: Blanching, Nutritional, Microbial, Phytochemical, Spices