Abstract

This study evaluated consumer acceptability and quality characteristics of cookies produced from composite flours of wheat and banana/avocado peels. Banana peel flour (BPF) and avocado peel flour (APF) were substituted in wheat flour at 5 and 10 % and used to produce cookies. Analysis of the composite flours showed that the highest ash content (%) was recorded in the flour sample containing 10% AF (flour-E), having a value of 1.40 while wheat flour (flour-A) had the lowest. Crude fibre (%) ranged from 1.71 and 3.28, with flour-A and flour-E having the lowest and highest values respectively. Result of proximate composition of the cookies indicated that the cookies containing APF and BPF had higher ash and crude fibre contents than their counterparts containing only wheat flour. From the result of mineral analysis (mg/100g), it was observed that potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium and iron ranged between 412.47-460.82, 20.48-65.26, 1.89-8.56, 31.21-42.65, and 2.10-3.19 respectively. Cookies with supplementation with flours of avocado/banana peel had higher contents than those produced from wheat flour alone. Assessment of the consumer acceptability of the cookies indicated that those produced from composite flours of wheat and avocado/banana peels favourably compared with those of wheat flours in the sensory attributes tested; hedonic mean scores of 6.0 and above were recorded for all the samples. It was concluded that the use of flours from avocado and banana peels as composites of wheat had good potential for production of nutritionally superior cookies compared to the use of wheat alone. This study may be an economically viable approach towards promoting utilization of food wastes for production of value added products in developing countries such as Nigeria, where food security has been a major challenge.

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