Effect of Ginger and Cinnamon on the Proximate Composition and Sensory Properties of Corn Ogi

Objective: Ogi is a fermented cereal gruel produced from maize, sorghum or millet. The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of ginger and cinnamon on the proximate composition and sensory properties of corn ogi.

Methodology: Ogi slurry was prepared from corn and fortified with 5% ginger, 5% cinnamon, 5% ginger: 5% cinnamon and 2.5% ginger: 2.5% cinnamon spices and 100% corn ogi as control. The samples were analyzed for proximate composition and sensory properties using standard methods.

Results: The results obtained from this study indicated that there was an increase in the moisture, ash, protein and fat contents of corn ogi spiced with ginger and cinnamon and a decrease in carbohydrate content. These increases were observed to be significant (p<0.05) with corn ogi samples spiced with ginger than for cinnamon except for crude fiber which was higher in ogi spiced with cinnamon. Moisture content of the ogi samples ranged from 8.53-9.79%, crude protein 5.13-6.37%, ash 0.19-0.30%, crude fiber 0.29-0.81%, carbohydrate 78.93-81.64% and energy contents 387.77-391.98 kcal. The inclusion of cinnamon and ginger had no significant (p<0.05) effect on the sensory properties of the unsweetened spiced ogi samples. Mean scores obtained for unsweetened ogi samples were low. Upon sweetening with sugar, these scores were increased for all sensory attributes. Sensory evaluation of sweetened ogi samples showed that the control sample was more preferred for all sensory attributes and this was followed closely by sample ogi spiced with 5% ginger.

Conclusion: This study recommends the use of ginger at 5% for the fortification of corn ogi which will result in ogi with sensory properties similar to 100% corn ogi. It also showed the potential of fortifying corn ogi with ginger and cinnamon, either singly or as a blend, to enhance the nutritional quality of corn ogi.