Nutritional and sensorial evaluation of egg-meat loaves for quality and consumers acceptability as functional food

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional, sensorial and acceptability characteristics of egg-meat loaves as functional food. 2kg of beef and 1.5kg of eggs were purchased and used for this study. The beef was minced and the eggs cracked, they were mixed out and apportioned into four treatments of T1 = 400g beef + 375g egg; T2 = 425g beef + 350g egg; T3 = 45g beef + 325g egg; T4 = 475g beef + 300g egg loaves and baked in pre-heated oven for 30mins at 1800C to 71ºC doneness and cooled, to 270C. Data were collected on available minerals and vitamins composition as well as on the sensorial attributes of the products and analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Egg- meat loaves in T3 elicited highest (P<0.05) vitamins and minerals content followed by Egg- meat loaves in T2. Also vitamin A (95.67ug/100g) and Calcium (93.33 Ca+) were numerically higher in T3 than in other treatments in the same vein T3 furnished the highest (P<0.05) Sensorial traits followed by T2. Flavour (7.67%) and texture (8.30%) were significantly higher in T3 than in other treatments. It was concluded from the results obtained in this study that varying the proportions of beef and egg in Egg-meat loaf significantly impacted on the quality and acceptability of the product. However, T3 with 450g beef + 350g egg combination emerged the best in quality and mostly accepted, hence the Egg- meat combination in T3 was recommended for both meat products processors and the consumers alike in this study.