Abstract:
One of the major problems associated with consumption of cereals alone may result in nutrient
deficiencies. The use of pretreated seeds composite flour can improve the macro and micro
nutrient deficiencies.However, scenarios indicate that the nutrient composition of teff is not
comparable to legumes. Due to this the nutritional value for injera made from teff and pretreated
fenugreek flour is increasing. This study was carried out to assess the effect of using differently
processed fenugreek flour (raw, roasted, soaked, germinated and boiled) and substitution level
on proximate composition, antioxidant activity and sensory characteristics of injera made from
teff-fenugreek flour blends. Factorial experimental design was used with two factors
arrangement (5x3) and analyzed by SAS 9.2 statistical software.Injera was made using teff flour
incorporated in raw and pretreated fenugreek flour at the ratios of 100:0, 95:5, 90:10 and 85:15
for teff: fenugreek flour, respectively. Injera prepared from blend of teff with fenugreek (raw,
roasted, soaked, germinated and boiled) at 5, 10 and 15% levels were compared with control
(100% teff) for chemical composition, antioxidant activity and sensory properties. The results
indicated that protein, crude fiber, calcium, zinc and antioxidant of the injera from blend of teff
and fenugreek (raw, roasted, soaked, germinated and boiled) at 5,10 and 15% levels increased
significantly at (p<0.05) with progressive increase in the fenugreek flour substitution. While the
iron, carbohydrate and energy contents decreased significantly and higher at control sample.
Mean values of protein, crude fiber, calcium, zinc, iron and antioxidant values were in the range
of 12.95 to 9.36, 2.4, to 3.93, 77.28 to 103.41, 2.11 to 4.30, 20 to 25 and 34.19 to 57.69%
respectively. The phytate and saponin content significantly decreased as increase in pretreated
fenugreek flour than raw fenugreek blends samples. Processing enables that the antinutritional
factors in the fenugreek couldn’t hamper its nutritional value. Therefore, processing methods
were effective to reduce the levels of antinutritional factors, thereby improving the
bioavailability of zinc, iron and calcium.The result in sensory analysis gave overall acceptability
of highest scores as 3.30, 4.00,3.73, 4.10 and 3.80 for raw, roasted, soaked, germinated and
boiled teff-fenugreek blends injera at 5, 10 and 15% respectively. Generally, among all blends,
injera from teff blend with 15% germinated and 15% soaked fenugreek flour had higher
nutrients contents and antioxidant activity than other blend samples. Overall acceptability scores
of injera were found highly acceptable at 5% (at par with control) and 10% levels blends.
