DEVELOPMENT OF A NUTRIENT DENSE BREAKFAST MEAL FROM TIGERNUT AND DATES

Breakfast is often referred to as the most crucial meal of the day and has recently been linked to weight management, reducing cardio-metabolic risk factors, and improving cognitive function, when appropriate items are selected. However, most healthy whole cereal breakfast meals are usually sweetened with table sugar and the dietary consequences of refined sugar has been clearly elucidated in the literature Protein energy malnutrition (PEM) and vitamin A deficiency (VAD) among infants, children and pregnant women have been shown to be directly and individual associated with more than 50% of all childhood morbidity and mortality in the developing world. This study therefore utilized tigernut and dates, a natural sweetener to produce a nutrient dense breakfast meal as a healthy alternative for consumers. Date and tigernut will be purchased from a local market at Ogbomoso, Nigeria. The date5:0 powder will be produced separately, while the tigernut powder will be produced separately. The powdered samples will be formulated at ratios 100:0; 97.5:2.5; 95:5; 92.5:7.5; 90:10 (TN:D) respectively. The samples will be subjected to analyses.wereSPSS package.showedin the range ofshoweddededshowed dscontaining tdthe This study established that an acceptable nutritious breakfast meal could be produced from 90% tigernut and 10% dates. It is expected that at the end of the project, the various quality attributes and analyzed results would have been established.