E ect of Cooking Time on the Physical, Chemical and Thermal Properties of Acha Seeds

Abstract

Acha is a less utilized cereal grain in Africa. Scaling up of the processing technology of acha seeds is desirable if accurate information on e ect of processing on its properties is available. This study inves tigated the e ect of cooking duration on the chemical and physical properties of acha seeds. Cooking times (2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 minutes) at 100° C were used. The volume, length, breadth, thickness, porosity, density, sphericity, aspect ratio, speci c heat capacity, thermal conductivity, thermal di usivity, mois ture, protein, fat, ash, crude bre and carbohydrate were determined using standard methods. Data were analysed using ANOVA at p = 0.05. The results obtained revealed that varietal di erence had a signi cant e ect on volume, length, breadth, thickness, true density, bulk density, porosity, spheric ity and aspect ratio. The moisture content, ash, protein, crude bre, fat, carbohydrate, speci c heat capacity, thermal conductivity and thermal di usivity varied from 8.80- 56.17 %, 0.32- 1.87%, 1.92 11.50%, 0.29- 1.58%, 0.32- 2.81%, 40.94- 76.26%, 1.66-2.97 kJkg 1K 1, 0.26-0.43 Wm 1K 1 and 0.85 x 10 7- 1.17 x 10 7 ms 2 respectively, as signi cantly inuenced by cooking time. Cooking for 7.5 minutes was appropriate using the moisture uptakes and thermal properties as criteria.