Guava is a climacteric fruit which has high nutritional content. It is a highly perishable fruit, undergoes rapid postharvest ripening in a few days under ambient condition. This paper aims to determine the effect of palm stearin and palm kernel olein blends on maintaining the quality of guava during storage. Two different coating formulations of palm stearin (PS) and palm kernel olein (PKOo) blends (1:1 and 3:2) were analysed for their slip melting point (SMP), cohesiveness, viscosity and density. Beeswax was used as a commercial coating for comparison whiles the uncoated guava was used as control. These coatings were applied onto guavas by hand-wipe technique using a sponge. Guavas were dried in corrugated fibre board boxes and stored in an air-conditioned room maintained at 20°C while a chiller maintained at 10°C was used for chilled temperature. Coating pick up, thickness and surface area were measured while guava properties were analysed for coating effect on weight loss, O2 and CO2 gases, firmness and glossiness during storage at ambient temperature (20°C) for 21 days and chilled temperature (10ºC) for 30 days. Microstructure analysis was conducted within 2 days of coating at ambient temperature (20ºC). The results obtained indicated that 1:1 PSPKOo blends had higher cohesiveness compared to beeswax. Both PSPKOo blends significantly (p
The effects of orange sweet potato flour addition to tapioca starch on the expansion, oil absorption,
bulk density, water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), hardness and colour of fried extruded fish crackers were investigated. The microstructure properties were assessed by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and the sensory properties of fried extruded fish crackers were determined by quantitative descriptive analysis method. The shape and texture of the product were similar to that of normal breakfast cereal. Light brownish and slightly harder texture was obtained with addition of orange sweet potato flour to tapioca starch in the fried extruded fish crackers. The bulk density and water solubility index (WSI) increased with the increase in orange sweet potato flour addition. However, water absorption index (WAI), linear expansion, expansion ratio, volume expansion and oil absorption decreased as the amount of orange sweet potato increased. The microstructure studies revealed that fried extruded fish crackers with high percentage of orange sweet potato flour had small air cells and thick cell wall. The fried extruded fish crackers with 30% fish, 14% orange sweet potato flour and 56% tapioca starch had high crispiness score and accepted by the trained panellists.