ABSTRACT

This work examined the physicochemical properties of cocoyam flour. Cocoyam corms were cleaned, peeled, diced, blanched, sundried, milled and sieved to obtain flour of fine particle sizes. Physical properties and chemical composition of the flour were determined in accordance with standard methods. The results of the physical properties ranged from oil absorption capacity 2.96 g/ml, water absorption capacity 3 g/ml, gelatinization temperature 68oC, least gelation capacity 0.4 g/ml, bulk density 0.59 g/cm3, porosity 0.15 g/cm3, foam capacity 9%, viscosity 3699.9 cP to pH 9.31. The result of the chemical analysis showed that carbohydrate had the highest value of 71.33%, ash 9%, moisture 7.8%, fat 7%, fibre 4%, and protein 0.87%. The work equally examined particle size of the flour using 40,60 and 80 mm sieve mesh sizes; majority of the flour (47.5%) was retained on 40 mm sieve, signifying that the average size of the flour might be 40 mm or more. This study revealed that cocoyam flour have good physical and chemical properties that can enable it to be processed into diverse food forms such as baby food, cocoyam pancake, composite flour, cocoyam fufu, etc.