Nutrition & Food Science

Evaluation of cassava flour in the production of cocoa powder-based biscuits

Esther Gyedu-Akoto Damian Laryea
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Esther Gyedu-Akoto Damian Laryea, (2013),"Evaluation of cassava flour in the production of cocoa
powder-based biscuits", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 43 Iss 1 pp. 55 - 59
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Evaluation of
Evaluation of cassava flour in the cassava flour
production of cocoa powder-based
biscuits
55
Esther Gyedu-Akoto
Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, Accra, Ghana, and
Damian Laryea
Department of Food Science and Technology,
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Knust-Kumasi, Ghana
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Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to promote the local consumption of cassava through its
utilization in baked products such as cocoa powder-based biscuits.
Design/methodology/approach – Wheat flour was substituted with cassava flour at different
levels – 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 percent in the production of cocoa powder-based biscuits. The
products obtained were analyzed for protein and ash contents. Sensory analysis was also conducted on
the products to determine the optimum level of inclusion of cassava flour.
Findings – The incremental addition of cassava flour to the biscuits reduced the sensory and
chemical quality of the products. The use of sole cassava flour (100 percent) could not form dough to
produce biscuits. However, biscuits with 20 percent cassava flour were found to be most acceptable.
Regression analysis of the data showed that the quality of the products depended on their texture and
protein content since these attributes had R 2 values higher than 0.80.
Originality/value – This study was done to determine the potential use of cassava flour in baked
products to meet the needs of the dynamic consumer market and also help in the reduction of excess
cassava on the Ghanaian market.
Keywords Wheat flour, Cassava flour, Cocoa powder, Gluten, Lipoprotein matrix, Food products, Ghana
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Biscuits are ready to eat and convenient cereal foods that are consumed both by adults
and children. They are relatively inexpensive and are eaten mostly as snacks and at
times as meals (Oluwamukomi et al., 2011). The prices of biscuits in general depend on
their nutritional composition. In addition to the flour and other ingredients such as
margarine, sugar, milk and sometimes eggs used in the baking of biscuits, biscuits can
be further enriched nutritionally with chocolate, cocoa powder and natural flavours.
Wheat flour (WF) plays a very vital role in the baking of biscuits (Oluwamukomi et al.,
2011). However, its high cost contributes to the price of baked foods such as
biscuits. This has therefore led to the assessment of cheaper and locally made flour,
which can replace the WF, in order to cut down the cost of these snacks enjoyed by
many.
Cassava, unlike wheat is a locally grown root crop, which can be processed into Nutrition & Food Science
Vol. 43 No. 1, 2013
flour and used in baking (Sanful and Darko, 2010; Defloor et al., 1993). Substitution of pp. 55-59
WF in biscuit with cassava flour (CF) has been reported by Oluwamukomi et al. (2011). q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0034-6659
Oppong and Gyedu (1996) have also reported on the substitution of WF with flours DOI 10.1108/00346651311295914
 NFS from local cereals such as maize and rice in cocoa powder-based biscuits. Unlike maize
43,1 and rice, cassava is an underutilized crop (Katama et al., 2010) and its use in baking
would bring cassava to the market. Therefore, creating employment for farmers and
flour processors and making cassava one of the top locally exported food crops. Hence,
to maximize its utilization, CF was used to replace WF in the production of cocoa
powder-based biscuits.
56
Materials and methods
Preparation of samples and sample formulation
CF was obtained from the Food Research Institute (CSIR-FRI) and the WF also
obtained from Irani Brothers Ltd. The WF for cocoa powder-based biscuits production
was replaced with CF at different levels of 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 percent. A total of
six samples were prepared. For each sample, 62.5 g sugar was mixed with 75.0 g
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margarine using a cake mixer to form a light fluffy cream. Vanilla essence, evaporated
milk and an egg were added to the cream and mixed together. The dry ingredients
which were made up of 250.0 g composite flour (CF and WF) and 12.5 g cocoa powder
were added to the cream and mixed to form dough. The dough was rolled out flat and
cut into round pieces. The cut biscuits were baked in an oven at 140.58C for 50 min.
They were then allowed to cool and vacuum packed in transparent polyethylene bags.

Chemical and sensory analyses

The protein contents of the samples were determined using the Kjeldahl’s method
(AOAC, 1990). Ash was also determined by burning 2.0 g of each sample in a furnace at
6008C for 2 h. Sensory analysis was done using the ranking test. 15 panellists were
asked to rank coded samples in terms of moistness, hardness, flavour, crispiness and
colour. Overall acceptability test was also conducted using the same panellists.

Statistical analysis
Data obtained for each product was analyzed using Genstat (9th edition) for analysis of
variance and regression.

Results and discussion

Addition of CF to WF made mixing of flour and cream difficult. The experimental
sample containing 100 percent WF formed soft dough which was light in weight as
compared to dough from WF-CF composite flour. This agrees with the findings of
Charles et al. (2007) that adding cassava starch (CS) to WF noodles demonstrates
higher weights, more volume gains and higher swelling index than plain WF noodles.
However, the mixture containing 100 percent CF could not bind together to form
dough, hence, could not be used in the preparation of biscuits. The chemical
compositions of WF and CF (Table I). Starch and protein contents for CF and WF are

Parameter Moisture (%) Protein (%) Ash (%) Fibre (%) Fat (%) Starch (%)

CF 15 0.5-0.7 0.3 0.5 0.2 85

Table I. WF 14 8-13 0.3-0.6 0.1 0.8-1.5 68
Chemical composition of
cassava and WF Source: Darkwa and Jetuah (2003)
 85 and 0.5-0.7 percent and 68 and 8-13 percent, respectively (Darkwa and Jetuah, 2003). Evaluation of
When dough of WF is formed and all carbohydrates washed away, the resulting cassava flour
component is known as gluten. Gluten contains 90 percent protein (glutenin), 8 percent
lipids and 2 percent carbohydrates which are mainly water insoluble pentosans. It is
visco-elastic in nature and is therefore able to stretch. This property of gluten is due to
the formation of lipoprotein matrix by amino acids and fats in WF (Belitz et al., 2009). It
is this matrix that aids in the trapping of CO2 during baking of bread and enables 57
the dough to rise, giving it a well-structured crumb after baking (Defloor et al.,
1993). The inability of CF to form dough was therefore due to the absence of gluten
in CF.
The addition of cocoa powder to biscuits enhances the nutritional value of the
products (Oppong and Gyedu, 1996) and this is due to its high-nutritional content
(Table II). Despite its bitter taste, cocoa powder adds good chocolate flavour to
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desserts, cakes and biscuits when incorporated into them. It produces dough with a
brown colour because of its intense dark colour. However, this colour faded as CF was
added and this may be due to the lipoprotein structure of WF which may tend to trap
the cocoa powder molecules to form the brown dough. Since CF does not possess this
lipoprotein structure, the more CF added the less trapping of cocoa powder. Hence, the
reduction in colour as CF increased.
Results of the determination of protein content of the products showed that protein
content decreased with increase in CF. This confirms a report by Sanful and Darko
(2010) that substitution of WF with CF in rock cakes resulted in a decrease in protein
content. Oluwamukomi et al. (2011) also reported that the substitution of WF with CF
in biscuit enriched with soy flour reduced the protein content of the biscuits.
This is because CF has very low protein content and could therefore not enrich
the products in terms of proteins. Ash content was found to decrease
as CF increased (Table III) as reported by Oluwamukomi et al. (2011).
Since ash content is an indicator of purity, this may imply that WF contains
some constituents which CF does not have.
Results of sensory analysis showed that increase in CF reduced the sensory quality
of the products. Moistness, flavour and colour decreased with increase in CF while
hardness and crispiness increased with an increase in CF. This may be due to the
trapping of fat and cocoa powder by the lipoprotein matrix present in WF. The less fat
trapped, the lower the sensory quality and this confirms the report that fat enhances

Parameter Dry weight basis (%)

Moisture 3.0
Protein 21.2
Fat 11.0
Crude fibre 5.0
Carbohydrates 60.0
Ash 5.5
Theobromine 2.8
Phosphate 1.9
Chloride 0.04 Table II.
Proximate composition
Source: Minifie (1989) of cocoa powder
 NFS sensory attributes such as flavour, palatability, texture and creaminess (Akoh and
43,1 Swanson, 1994). An increase in CF results in less lipoprotein matrix formation which in
turn reduces flavour, moistness and colour. In the overall acceptability test, biscuit
with 20 percent CF was the most acceptable product with a mean score of 7.40
representing “like moderately” on a hedonic scale (Table III). Analysis of variance
showed significant differences in all the products ( p , 0.05) with a coefficient of
58 variation of 29.9 percent. Regression analysis showed that apart from colour and the
ash content, the quality of the products depended on all the sensory attributes and
protein content because they had significantly high coefficients of determination which
were above 0.80 (Table IV).

Conclusion
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This study has demonstrated the effect of CF on the quality of WF cocoa powder-based
biscuit. The inclusion of CF resulted in significantly different products in terms of
sensory quality and protein content. Although the addition of CF reduced the sensory
quality of the biscuits as well as the protein and ash contents, biscuit with 20 percent
CF was found to be the most acceptable indicating that CF can be substituted with WF
in cocoa biscuits up to 20 percent. Thus, in the search for cheaper and locally made
flour to replace WF in baked products to the dynamic consumer market, results of this
study presents some potential use of CF as a composite additive in cocoa powder-based
biscuits. This may therefore result in the economical use of surplus cassava
in Ghana. Further research in the utilization of CF in other food products is
recommended.

Product Moistness Hardness Flavour Crispiness Colour Acceptability Ash (%) Protein (%)

Table III. 0% CF 5.00 4.27 5.67 4.40 7.13 6.93 0.95 11.00
Mean sensory scores for 20% CF 4.87 4.60 5.20 4.67 6.33 7.40 0.89 9.50
the products and mean 40% CF 4.33 5.00 4.73 4.73 4.87 6.13 0.01 7.56
values of their chemical 60% CF 3.80 5.13 4.60 5.20 4.00 6.13 0.01 6.13
determinations 80% CF 3.27 6.20 3.67 5.87 3.53 4.53 0.01 2.13

Variables R 2a p-value R 2b p-value

Moistness 0.96 0.002 0.98 0.011

Hardness 0.87 0.014 0.90 0.051
Flavour 0.93 0.005 0.92 0.043
Crispiness 0.87 0.013 0.96 0.020
Colour 0.35 0.174 0.69 0.158
Acceptability 0.70 0.050 0.79 0.104
Table IV. Ash 0.69 0.052 0.67 0.163
Coefficients of Protein 0.94 0.004 0.97 0.015
determination for sensory
and chemical variables Notes: aLinear regression; bPolynomial regression (quadratic)
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Charles, A.L., Huang, T.C., Lai, P.Y., Chen, C.C., Lee, P.P. and Chang, Y.H. (2007), “Study of wheat
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Further reading
Falade, K.O. and Akingbala, J.O. (2008), “Improved nutrition and national development through
the utilization of cassava in baked foods”, in Robetson, G.L. and Lupien, J.R. (Eds), Using
Food Science and Technology to Improve Nutrition and Promote National Development,
Internaltional Union of Food Science and Technology, Ontario, pp. 1-12.

Corresponding author
Esther Gyedu-Akoto can be contacted at: akua_akoto2004@yahoo.co.uk

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