Development and quality evaluation of non-alcoholic beverages from maize based products

Purpose - This paper sets out to focus on the utilization of the locally available raw material to develop an acceptable and high quality non-alcoholic beverage in Nigeria.Design methodology approach - Maize-based non-alcoholic beverages were produced from either plain maize powder or combinations of maize powder and mango or soybean flour. Plain and fruit or soy- fortified maize powders were analyzed using standard methods for chemical composition, while total solid, sediment height, pH, titratable acidity, storage stability and microbial load were determined on the formulated beverage products. Taste panel evaluation was conducted to evaluate the acceptability of the products.Findings - While the protein, fat and ash contents of plain maize powder were 5.69, 5.95 and 0.35 per cent respectively, there was minimal enhancement with fruit addition. However, with 10 per cent soybean addition significant improvement over the unfortified sample in protein (14.62 per cent), fat (10.64 per cent) and ash (0.96 per cent) was obtained. Sediment height was found to be higher for beverage with sour water and least for soy-fortified beverage. Titratable acidity of beverage samples was found to be 0.022, 0.018, 0.054 and 0.306 per cent (per cent lactic acid) for plain, fruit-flavoured, soy-fortified and soured beverages respectively. Variation in titratable acidity was observed depending on the product and storage condition. Sensory evaluation result for beverage prepared with sour water (0-100 per cent) revealed preference for soured beverage with 80 per cent sour water. Also, fruit-flavoured sample ranked highest in preference followed closely by the plain beverage, while soy-fortified sample was the least acceptable.Originality value - The paper has demonstrated the feasibility of developing acceptable beverage samples from sour water (a by-product of Ogi usually regarded as waste) and combinations of either maize powder and mango or soybean flour.