To assess the contamination of processed chilli pepper and tomatoes, a report over the past four ... more To assess the contamination of processed chilli pepper and tomatoes, a report over the past four decades since the establishment of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) was retrieved and analysed. Out of the 887 notification reports assessed for eligibility, 446 were found regarding chilli pepper and tomato contamination. This study identified India as the country of origin with the highest number of reported cases relating to chilli pepper contamination. Italy and Türkiye were the countries with the highest number of reported cases regarding the exportation of adulterated tomatoes to other countries according to the RASFF report. Unauthorized dyes such as Sudan I, III, IV, orange II, rhodamine B, and para red were reported to have been detected in either chilli pepper or tomato in the supply chain. Almost all unauthorized dyes in this study were found to be more than the range (0.5 to 1 mg/kg) of the detection limit of Sudan dye and other related dyes using analytical m...
An onsite technique for determining drug integrity in sub-Saharan Africa is needed for ensuring d... more An onsite technique for determining drug integrity in sub-Saharan Africa is needed for ensuring drug integrity and enhancing public health.
Food adulteration has become a threat to many countries as most individuals have consumed food it... more Food adulteration has become a threat to many countries as most individuals have consumed food items without knowing that it has been adulterated, leaving the consumer with various ailments. This study identifies the degree of adulteration in some commonly used food items bought by consumers and the means of detection. The study comprised 384 women who patronized various food items for food preparation. They were asked if they have come into contact with adulterated food products before and to illustrate how they detect if a food item is adulterated. From the findings of this study, the respondents indicated that they will not consume a food item if they get to know that it has been adulterated, and 50.5% indicated that they have come into contact with adulterated food during preparing food. Various reasons were given by the respondents why they will not consume adulterated food, and the reasons included the following: the food may be dangerous to consume and not healthy for consump...
ABSTRACT Density functional theory (DFT) method with B3LYP/LANL2DZ basis set was performed to inv... more ABSTRACT Density functional theory (DFT) method with B3LYP/LANL2DZ basis set was performed to investigate the influence of different cations on the binding process of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to metalloporphyrins. The optimized ground state of VOCs-metalloporphyrins is carried out to calculate binding energies, relative spin state energies, electron density, and mulliken charge. The cation has a large effect in the above calculation results. However, all the results can be cross validated by the others. The calculated binding energies can be used as the indicators to design colorimetric sensor array (CSA). While mulliken charge is another way to select the proper sensors to detect VOCs without specifically calculating the binding energies. The results of this theoretical investigation were used to design the proper sensors for CSA.
Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy combined with Support Vector Machine (SVM) ... more Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy combined with Support Vector Machine (SVM) and synergy interval partial least square (Si-PLS) was attempted in this study for cocoa bean authentication. SVM was used to develop an identification model to discriminate between fermented cocoa beans (FC), unfermented cocoa beans (UFC) and adulterated cocoa bean (5-40 wt/wt.% content of UFC). Si-PLS model was used to quantify the addition of UFC in FC. SVM model accurately discriminated the cocoa bean samples used. After crossvalidation, the optimal identification rate was 100% in both the training set and prediction set at three principal components. For quantitative analysis, Si-PLS model was evaluated according to root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) and coefficient of correlation in prediction (R pred). The results revealed that Si-PLS model in this work was promising. The optimal performance of Si-PLS model showed an excellent predictive potential, RMSEP = 1.68 and R pred = 0.98 in the prediction set. The overall results indicated that FT-NIR spectroscopy together with an appropriate multivariate algorithm could be employed for rapid identification of fermented and unfermented cocoa beans as well as the quantification of UFC down to 5% in FC for quality control management.
Electronic tongue as an advanced and novel emerging technology has been successfully utilized for... more Electronic tongue as an advanced and novel emerging technology has been successfully utilized for the rapid identification of cocoa beans according to their geographical locations. Seven categories of cocoa beans from Ghana were used in this experiment. Electronic tongue system was used for data acquisition while three pattern recognition methods were applied comparatively to build discrimination model. The performances of the models were cross-validated to ensure its stability. Experimental results revealed that Fisher's discriminant analysis (FDA) is better than principal component analysis (PCA) for visualizing the cluster trends. K-nearest neighbor (KNN) model was slightly better than FDA model at an optimal performance of 100 % in the training set and 98.8 % in prediction set. Overall, support vector machine (SVM) was superior to both FDA and KNN with 100 % discrimination rate in both the training and prediction set at five PCs. This finding proves that electronic tongue technology coupled with SVM technique can rapidly, accurately, and reliably discriminate cocoa beans for quality assurance management.
ABSTRACT A colorimetric sensor array is a rapid and high sensitivity sensor for the detection and... more ABSTRACT A colorimetric sensor array is a rapid and high sensitivity sensor for the detection and identification of volatile organic compounds. Theoretical investigations are performed to study the binding ability of the colorimetric sensor array with volatile organic compounds. Cobalt-porphyrin is selected to investigate the binding ability of the colorimetric sensor array with small volatile organic compounds. The binding energy of cobalt-porphyrin with small volatile organic compounds, such as O2, N2, H2S, trimethylamine, propanol, propane, ethyl acetate, butanone and so on, is investigated using density functional theory (DFT) methods at three different spin multiplicities: low-spin (singlet), intermediate-spin (triplet) and high-spin (quintet) states. The relative and absolute binding energies of all the complexes are obtained at the optimized geometries. The triplet state is found to have the lowest energy for the CoP-O2 complex, whereas the singlet state has the lowest energy for the other complexes. The binding energies for the complexes considered are in order starting from the lowest energy state: H2S < propane < O2 < N2 < ethyl acetate < butanone < propanol < trimethylamine. This theoretical result can be used to optimize the sensor to increase the detection ability of the colorimetric sensor array.
This work measures the total polyphenols content in cocoa beans by using a novel approach of inte... more This work measures the total polyphenols content in cocoa beans by using a novel approach of integrating near infrared spectroscopy and electronic tongue, 110 samples of cocoa beans were analysed.
ABSTRACT To achieve the rapid and nondestructive determination of bamboo shoots lignification ass... more ABSTRACT To achieve the rapid and nondestructive determination of bamboo shoots lignification associated with crude fiber content and firmness, Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy technique was used in this paper. The identification of efficient spectral variables selection algorithms: backward interval PLS (Bi-PLS), Monte Carlo uninformative variables elimination method (MC-UVE), competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) and genetic algorithms (GA) were also discussed. The partial least squares (PLS) algorithm was applied to establish prediction models for crude fiber content and firmness after spectral preprocessing and variables selection. The correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) were used to assess predictive effects of PLS models. Modeling results showed that the CARS-GA-PLS model was prime for crude fiber content prediction (R = 0.9508, RMSEP = 0.0598), and the CARS-PLS model was superior for firmness prediction (R = 0.9681, RMSEP = 0.8003). The overall results sufficiently demonstrated that the FT-NIR spectroscopy technique could determine successfully crude fiber content and firmness of postharvest bamboo shoots.
ABSTRACT A new method was developed to detect fish freshness nondestructively by combining electr... more ABSTRACT A new method was developed to detect fish freshness nondestructively by combining electronic nose (E-nose) and electronic tongue (E-tongue) in conjunction with chemometric methods. An E-nose with nine metal oxide semiconductor gas sensors and a commercial E-tongue were employed in this research. Pseudosciaena crocea stored at 4 °C for different days were used as experimental samples. Total viable counts (TVC) of the fish were detected by the conventional method. E-nose and E-tongue data were analyzed by principal component analysis. Three-layer radial basis function neural network (RBF-NN) models were established for qualitative discrimination of the fish freshness. Performances of RBF-NN models with different numbers of principal components (PCs) as the input were compared. Experimental results revealed that the best RBF-NN model was acquired at seven PCs of E-nose data with an optimal performance of 87.9% and 80.0% in the training set and prediction set respectively. While, the best RBF-NN model of E-tongue data analysis was at five PCs with an optimal performance of 86.3% in the training set and 81.8% in prediction set. Another RBF-NN model was built with the combination of E-nose and E-tongue. The result shows that the discrimination rates improved to 94.0% and 93.9% in the training set and prediction set respectively. A support vector machine regression model was applied to establish a relationship between the combined data from E-nose and E-tongue and from TVC values for quantitative determination. A high correlation was found between the merged data and the parameter of TVC with correlation coefficients more than 0.91. The results proved that, a single system of E-nose and E-tongue was enough to classify samples stored on different days at 4 °C, while a higher discrimination rate was acquired by the combination of the two sensors. The combined system could also be used to quantitatively evaluate the fish freshness. In conclusion, the combined system of E-nose and E-tongue in conjunction with appropriate chemometric analysis methods can conveniently and nondestructively evaluate the freshness of fish stored at 4 °C.
Gari is a major staple food for many West Africans. This study aimed at evaluating the quality pa... more Gari is a major staple food for many West Africans. This study aimed at evaluating the quality parameters of gari, price per quantity in “Olonka” (a local measuring container) and develop a nondestructive simple technique for assessing adulteration. A completely randomized design (CRD) was used with three replications. The samples of gari were collected from seven regions of Ghana (from: processors and retailers in each region). The results showed that the mean price per weight in “Olonka” was 2.12 kg per Gh 6.4 (0.3313 kg/Gh). The physicochemical properties fall within acceptable range; pH was 4.3 to 5.4, moisture content was 4.5- 7.4 %, and ash content was 1.11-1.61 %. Swelling capacity and bulk density were 3.0- 3.2 and 0.52- 0.61 g/cm3, respectively. Particle size distribution was found to be 0.94-1.69 mm. From this study, bulk density and swelling capacity technique could be used to detect adulteration of gari with sawdust above 10 %. The tests showed that gari produced in Ghan...
The potential of nondestructive prediction of egg freshness based on near-infrared (NIR) spectra ... more The potential of nondestructive prediction of egg freshness based on near-infrared (NIR) spectra fingerprints would be beneficial to quality control officers and consumers alike. In this study, handheld NIR spectrometer in the range of 740 nm to 1070 nm and chemometrics were used to simultaneously determine egg freshness based on marked date of lay for eggs stored under cold and ambient conditions. The spectra acquired from the eggs were preprocessed using multiplicative scatter correction and principal component analysis (MSC-PCA). Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to build identification model to predict the category of freshness, while partial least square regression (PLS-R) was used to determine the marked date of lay. The performance of LDA model was above 95% identification rate in both calibration and prediction set for the eggs stored under ambient and cold storage. For eggs stored in ambient storage, LDA had 95.54% identification rate at 5 principal components, wh...
The study investigated the effect of different pretreatments such as citric-acid (CA), potassium-... more The study investigated the effect of different pretreatments such as citric-acid (CA), potassium-metabisulphite (KMS), and ethylenediamine-tetraacetic acid (EDTA) on the drying kinetics, allicin and colour of garlic slices in a convective hot-air dryer at temperatures of 45, 50 and 55°C. The allicin content of the fresh garlic slices compared with the dried slices increased non-linearly with increase in temperature from 8.6 to 23.5, 13.3 to 22.4, 11.9 to 23.4 and 12.3 to 24.1 µg/ml for the control, CA, KMS, and EDTA samples, respectively. The drying characteristics were evaluated against Page et al. (1949) mathematical models on the basis of the coefficient of determination (R2), reduced chi-square , and root mean square error (RMSE). The drying characteristics of garlic slices of the control were best described by the Midilli et al. (2002) model whilst the CA, KMS, and EDTA pretreated samples were best described by the Henderson and Pabis (2006) model within the confines of the ex...
The determination of the dry matter content of cassava tubers using oven dry method is a major co... more The determination of the dry matter content of cassava tubers using oven dry method is a major constraint in tropical developing countries where the source of electricity is unreliable. In this study a prediction equation was developed as an alternative approach to dry matter determination with the oven dry method. The study was conducted for two years with eleven cassava accessions (using 13 and 15 month old tubers). In the first year, the specific gravity and the dry matter content (oven dry method) of the same tubers were used to derive the prediction equation that can be used for easy and faster estimation of the dry matter content of cassava tubers. The specific gravity and dry matter content based on the oven dry method ranged from 1.0966-1.1469 and 31.45-40.74%, respectively. There was a perfect correlation (R 2 = 0.9979) between specific gravity and oven dry matter content of cassava tuber. The middle portion of the cassava tubers gave the true representation of the dry matt...
The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) variety TIS 2 is a popular variety grown in Cape Coast metr... more The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) variety TIS 2 is a popular variety grown in Cape Coast metropolis. However, it is confronted with a myriad of post harvest challenges resulting from heavy losses (deterioration in storage). In this study the tuberous roots were pre-treated with four pre-storage treatments (Ash, Brine, Lantana camara extract and a Control) and stored at a temperature and relative humidity of 25 o C and 90 %, respectively. Using a completely randomized design (CRD), the tuberous roots were stored for twelve (12) weeks in an evaporative cooling barn. At the end of the storage, sweet potato roots pre-treated with the Lantana camara extract was the best with 90.7 % wholesomeness, 18 % weevil damage, 3.6 % shrinkage, 14 % weight loss and 19 % incidence of decay. The ash pre-storage treatment was most effective in reducing sprouting (42 %) as compared to the others. Pre-treatment of TIS 2 with Lantana camara extract may be explored to extend the shelf-life of sweet pot...
The storage of sweet potato tuberous root in Ghana is a major challenge to farmers and retailers.... more The storage of sweet potato tuberous root in Ghana is a major challenge to farmers and retailers. In this research, a factorial combination of four pre-storage treatments (Ash, Brine, Lantana camara extract and Control), two sweet potato varieties (TIS 2 and Ukerewe) and two storage structures (Evaporative cooling barn and Pit storage structure) in a completely randomized design with 3 replications were used and evaluated over a 3-month period. All the parameters studied (weevil damage, weight loss, shrinkage, decay, sprouting and wholesomeness) showed that significant differences existed among the pre-storage treatments used. Sweet potato roots pre-treated with Lantana camara extract exhibited the least weevil damage, the lowest weight loss and decay, and had more wholesome sweet potato tuberous roots. For the two varieties, TIS 2 generally stored better than Ukerewe. It was also more resistant to: weevil damage, decay, weight loss and shrinkage. Again the roots were more wholesome...
Tea is gaining increasing consumer attention due to a growing awareness of the health benefits de... more Tea is gaining increasing consumer attention due to a growing awareness of the health benefits derived from its consumption. Even though several underutilized plants exist with potentials for processing into tea, research in formulating tea using underutilized crop in Ghana is limited. In this study, roselle, ginger and turkey berry were used to formulate composite tea and their physicochemical, elemental and sensory properties were evaluated. The results from the physicochemical analysis revealed that 50% roselle + 25% ginger + 25% turkey berry had the optimum protein content of 4.14% while, elemental analyses showed that the same formulation had the optimum amount of Ca (1.80%), Fe (0.96 µg/g) and Cu (1.18 µg/g). However, the combination of 25% roselle + 50% ginger + 25% turkey berry had the best Na (6402.44 µg/g) and Zn (0.42 µg/g). The results from the sensory analyses revealed that tea made from the combination of 50% roselle + 25% ginger + 25% turkey berry was the most preferr...
To assess the contamination of processed chilli pepper and tomatoes, a report over the past four ... more To assess the contamination of processed chilli pepper and tomatoes, a report over the past four decades since the establishment of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) was retrieved and analysed. Out of the 887 notification reports assessed for eligibility, 446 were found regarding chilli pepper and tomato contamination. This study identified India as the country of origin with the highest number of reported cases relating to chilli pepper contamination. Italy and Türkiye were the countries with the highest number of reported cases regarding the exportation of adulterated tomatoes to other countries according to the RASFF report. Unauthorized dyes such as Sudan I, III, IV, orange II, rhodamine B, and para red were reported to have been detected in either chilli pepper or tomato in the supply chain. Almost all unauthorized dyes in this study were found to be more than the range (0.5 to 1 mg/kg) of the detection limit of Sudan dye and other related dyes using analytical m...
An onsite technique for determining drug integrity in sub-Saharan Africa is needed for ensuring d... more An onsite technique for determining drug integrity in sub-Saharan Africa is needed for ensuring drug integrity and enhancing public health.
Food adulteration has become a threat to many countries as most individuals have consumed food it... more Food adulteration has become a threat to many countries as most individuals have consumed food items without knowing that it has been adulterated, leaving the consumer with various ailments. This study identifies the degree of adulteration in some commonly used food items bought by consumers and the means of detection. The study comprised 384 women who patronized various food items for food preparation. They were asked if they have come into contact with adulterated food products before and to illustrate how they detect if a food item is adulterated. From the findings of this study, the respondents indicated that they will not consume a food item if they get to know that it has been adulterated, and 50.5% indicated that they have come into contact with adulterated food during preparing food. Various reasons were given by the respondents why they will not consume adulterated food, and the reasons included the following: the food may be dangerous to consume and not healthy for consump...
ABSTRACT Density functional theory (DFT) method with B3LYP/LANL2DZ basis set was performed to inv... more ABSTRACT Density functional theory (DFT) method with B3LYP/LANL2DZ basis set was performed to investigate the influence of different cations on the binding process of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to metalloporphyrins. The optimized ground state of VOCs-metalloporphyrins is carried out to calculate binding energies, relative spin state energies, electron density, and mulliken charge. The cation has a large effect in the above calculation results. However, all the results can be cross validated by the others. The calculated binding energies can be used as the indicators to design colorimetric sensor array (CSA). While mulliken charge is another way to select the proper sensors to detect VOCs without specifically calculating the binding energies. The results of this theoretical investigation were used to design the proper sensors for CSA.
Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy combined with Support Vector Machine (SVM) ... more Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy combined with Support Vector Machine (SVM) and synergy interval partial least square (Si-PLS) was attempted in this study for cocoa bean authentication. SVM was used to develop an identification model to discriminate between fermented cocoa beans (FC), unfermented cocoa beans (UFC) and adulterated cocoa bean (5-40 wt/wt.% content of UFC). Si-PLS model was used to quantify the addition of UFC in FC. SVM model accurately discriminated the cocoa bean samples used. After crossvalidation, the optimal identification rate was 100% in both the training set and prediction set at three principal components. For quantitative analysis, Si-PLS model was evaluated according to root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) and coefficient of correlation in prediction (R pred). The results revealed that Si-PLS model in this work was promising. The optimal performance of Si-PLS model showed an excellent predictive potential, RMSEP = 1.68 and R pred = 0.98 in the prediction set. The overall results indicated that FT-NIR spectroscopy together with an appropriate multivariate algorithm could be employed for rapid identification of fermented and unfermented cocoa beans as well as the quantification of UFC down to 5% in FC for quality control management.
Electronic tongue as an advanced and novel emerging technology has been successfully utilized for... more Electronic tongue as an advanced and novel emerging technology has been successfully utilized for the rapid identification of cocoa beans according to their geographical locations. Seven categories of cocoa beans from Ghana were used in this experiment. Electronic tongue system was used for data acquisition while three pattern recognition methods were applied comparatively to build discrimination model. The performances of the models were cross-validated to ensure its stability. Experimental results revealed that Fisher's discriminant analysis (FDA) is better than principal component analysis (PCA) for visualizing the cluster trends. K-nearest neighbor (KNN) model was slightly better than FDA model at an optimal performance of 100 % in the training set and 98.8 % in prediction set. Overall, support vector machine (SVM) was superior to both FDA and KNN with 100 % discrimination rate in both the training and prediction set at five PCs. This finding proves that electronic tongue technology coupled with SVM technique can rapidly, accurately, and reliably discriminate cocoa beans for quality assurance management.
ABSTRACT A colorimetric sensor array is a rapid and high sensitivity sensor for the detection and... more ABSTRACT A colorimetric sensor array is a rapid and high sensitivity sensor for the detection and identification of volatile organic compounds. Theoretical investigations are performed to study the binding ability of the colorimetric sensor array with volatile organic compounds. Cobalt-porphyrin is selected to investigate the binding ability of the colorimetric sensor array with small volatile organic compounds. The binding energy of cobalt-porphyrin with small volatile organic compounds, such as O2, N2, H2S, trimethylamine, propanol, propane, ethyl acetate, butanone and so on, is investigated using density functional theory (DFT) methods at three different spin multiplicities: low-spin (singlet), intermediate-spin (triplet) and high-spin (quintet) states. The relative and absolute binding energies of all the complexes are obtained at the optimized geometries. The triplet state is found to have the lowest energy for the CoP-O2 complex, whereas the singlet state has the lowest energy for the other complexes. The binding energies for the complexes considered are in order starting from the lowest energy state: H2S < propane < O2 < N2 < ethyl acetate < butanone < propanol < trimethylamine. This theoretical result can be used to optimize the sensor to increase the detection ability of the colorimetric sensor array.
This work measures the total polyphenols content in cocoa beans by using a novel approach of inte... more This work measures the total polyphenols content in cocoa beans by using a novel approach of integrating near infrared spectroscopy and electronic tongue, 110 samples of cocoa beans were analysed.
ABSTRACT To achieve the rapid and nondestructive determination of bamboo shoots lignification ass... more ABSTRACT To achieve the rapid and nondestructive determination of bamboo shoots lignification associated with crude fiber content and firmness, Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy technique was used in this paper. The identification of efficient spectral variables selection algorithms: backward interval PLS (Bi-PLS), Monte Carlo uninformative variables elimination method (MC-UVE), competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) and genetic algorithms (GA) were also discussed. The partial least squares (PLS) algorithm was applied to establish prediction models for crude fiber content and firmness after spectral preprocessing and variables selection. The correlation coefficient (R) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) were used to assess predictive effects of PLS models. Modeling results showed that the CARS-GA-PLS model was prime for crude fiber content prediction (R = 0.9508, RMSEP = 0.0598), and the CARS-PLS model was superior for firmness prediction (R = 0.9681, RMSEP = 0.8003). The overall results sufficiently demonstrated that the FT-NIR spectroscopy technique could determine successfully crude fiber content and firmness of postharvest bamboo shoots.
ABSTRACT A new method was developed to detect fish freshness nondestructively by combining electr... more ABSTRACT A new method was developed to detect fish freshness nondestructively by combining electronic nose (E-nose) and electronic tongue (E-tongue) in conjunction with chemometric methods. An E-nose with nine metal oxide semiconductor gas sensors and a commercial E-tongue were employed in this research. Pseudosciaena crocea stored at 4 °C for different days were used as experimental samples. Total viable counts (TVC) of the fish were detected by the conventional method. E-nose and E-tongue data were analyzed by principal component analysis. Three-layer radial basis function neural network (RBF-NN) models were established for qualitative discrimination of the fish freshness. Performances of RBF-NN models with different numbers of principal components (PCs) as the input were compared. Experimental results revealed that the best RBF-NN model was acquired at seven PCs of E-nose data with an optimal performance of 87.9% and 80.0% in the training set and prediction set respectively. While, the best RBF-NN model of E-tongue data analysis was at five PCs with an optimal performance of 86.3% in the training set and 81.8% in prediction set. Another RBF-NN model was built with the combination of E-nose and E-tongue. The result shows that the discrimination rates improved to 94.0% and 93.9% in the training set and prediction set respectively. A support vector machine regression model was applied to establish a relationship between the combined data from E-nose and E-tongue and from TVC values for quantitative determination. A high correlation was found between the merged data and the parameter of TVC with correlation coefficients more than 0.91. The results proved that, a single system of E-nose and E-tongue was enough to classify samples stored on different days at 4 °C, while a higher discrimination rate was acquired by the combination of the two sensors. The combined system could also be used to quantitatively evaluate the fish freshness. In conclusion, the combined system of E-nose and E-tongue in conjunction with appropriate chemometric analysis methods can conveniently and nondestructively evaluate the freshness of fish stored at 4 °C.
Gari is a major staple food for many West Africans. This study aimed at evaluating the quality pa... more Gari is a major staple food for many West Africans. This study aimed at evaluating the quality parameters of gari, price per quantity in “Olonka” (a local measuring container) and develop a nondestructive simple technique for assessing adulteration. A completely randomized design (CRD) was used with three replications. The samples of gari were collected from seven regions of Ghana (from: processors and retailers in each region). The results showed that the mean price per weight in “Olonka” was 2.12 kg per Gh 6.4 (0.3313 kg/Gh). The physicochemical properties fall within acceptable range; pH was 4.3 to 5.4, moisture content was 4.5- 7.4 %, and ash content was 1.11-1.61 %. Swelling capacity and bulk density were 3.0- 3.2 and 0.52- 0.61 g/cm3, respectively. Particle size distribution was found to be 0.94-1.69 mm. From this study, bulk density and swelling capacity technique could be used to detect adulteration of gari with sawdust above 10 %. The tests showed that gari produced in Ghan...
The potential of nondestructive prediction of egg freshness based on near-infrared (NIR) spectra ... more The potential of nondestructive prediction of egg freshness based on near-infrared (NIR) spectra fingerprints would be beneficial to quality control officers and consumers alike. In this study, handheld NIR spectrometer in the range of 740 nm to 1070 nm and chemometrics were used to simultaneously determine egg freshness based on marked date of lay for eggs stored under cold and ambient conditions. The spectra acquired from the eggs were preprocessed using multiplicative scatter correction and principal component analysis (MSC-PCA). Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to build identification model to predict the category of freshness, while partial least square regression (PLS-R) was used to determine the marked date of lay. The performance of LDA model was above 95% identification rate in both calibration and prediction set for the eggs stored under ambient and cold storage. For eggs stored in ambient storage, LDA had 95.54% identification rate at 5 principal components, wh...
The study investigated the effect of different pretreatments such as citric-acid (CA), potassium-... more The study investigated the effect of different pretreatments such as citric-acid (CA), potassium-metabisulphite (KMS), and ethylenediamine-tetraacetic acid (EDTA) on the drying kinetics, allicin and colour of garlic slices in a convective hot-air dryer at temperatures of 45, 50 and 55°C. The allicin content of the fresh garlic slices compared with the dried slices increased non-linearly with increase in temperature from 8.6 to 23.5, 13.3 to 22.4, 11.9 to 23.4 and 12.3 to 24.1 µg/ml for the control, CA, KMS, and EDTA samples, respectively. The drying characteristics were evaluated against Page et al. (1949) mathematical models on the basis of the coefficient of determination (R2), reduced chi-square , and root mean square error (RMSE). The drying characteristics of garlic slices of the control were best described by the Midilli et al. (2002) model whilst the CA, KMS, and EDTA pretreated samples were best described by the Henderson and Pabis (2006) model within the confines of the ex...
The determination of the dry matter content of cassava tubers using oven dry method is a major co... more The determination of the dry matter content of cassava tubers using oven dry method is a major constraint in tropical developing countries where the source of electricity is unreliable. In this study a prediction equation was developed as an alternative approach to dry matter determination with the oven dry method. The study was conducted for two years with eleven cassava accessions (using 13 and 15 month old tubers). In the first year, the specific gravity and the dry matter content (oven dry method) of the same tubers were used to derive the prediction equation that can be used for easy and faster estimation of the dry matter content of cassava tubers. The specific gravity and dry matter content based on the oven dry method ranged from 1.0966-1.1469 and 31.45-40.74%, respectively. There was a perfect correlation (R 2 = 0.9979) between specific gravity and oven dry matter content of cassava tuber. The middle portion of the cassava tubers gave the true representation of the dry matt...
The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) variety TIS 2 is a popular variety grown in Cape Coast metr... more The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) variety TIS 2 is a popular variety grown in Cape Coast metropolis. However, it is confronted with a myriad of post harvest challenges resulting from heavy losses (deterioration in storage). In this study the tuberous roots were pre-treated with four pre-storage treatments (Ash, Brine, Lantana camara extract and a Control) and stored at a temperature and relative humidity of 25 o C and 90 %, respectively. Using a completely randomized design (CRD), the tuberous roots were stored for twelve (12) weeks in an evaporative cooling barn. At the end of the storage, sweet potato roots pre-treated with the Lantana camara extract was the best with 90.7 % wholesomeness, 18 % weevil damage, 3.6 % shrinkage, 14 % weight loss and 19 % incidence of decay. The ash pre-storage treatment was most effective in reducing sprouting (42 %) as compared to the others. Pre-treatment of TIS 2 with Lantana camara extract may be explored to extend the shelf-life of sweet pot...
The storage of sweet potato tuberous root in Ghana is a major challenge to farmers and retailers.... more The storage of sweet potato tuberous root in Ghana is a major challenge to farmers and retailers. In this research, a factorial combination of four pre-storage treatments (Ash, Brine, Lantana camara extract and Control), two sweet potato varieties (TIS 2 and Ukerewe) and two storage structures (Evaporative cooling barn and Pit storage structure) in a completely randomized design with 3 replications were used and evaluated over a 3-month period. All the parameters studied (weevil damage, weight loss, shrinkage, decay, sprouting and wholesomeness) showed that significant differences existed among the pre-storage treatments used. Sweet potato roots pre-treated with Lantana camara extract exhibited the least weevil damage, the lowest weight loss and decay, and had more wholesome sweet potato tuberous roots. For the two varieties, TIS 2 generally stored better than Ukerewe. It was also more resistant to: weevil damage, decay, weight loss and shrinkage. Again the roots were more wholesome...
Tea is gaining increasing consumer attention due to a growing awareness of the health benefits de... more Tea is gaining increasing consumer attention due to a growing awareness of the health benefits derived from its consumption. Even though several underutilized plants exist with potentials for processing into tea, research in formulating tea using underutilized crop in Ghana is limited. In this study, roselle, ginger and turkey berry were used to formulate composite tea and their physicochemical, elemental and sensory properties were evaluated. The results from the physicochemical analysis revealed that 50% roselle + 25% ginger + 25% turkey berry had the optimum protein content of 4.14% while, elemental analyses showed that the same formulation had the optimum amount of Ca (1.80%), Fe (0.96 µg/g) and Cu (1.18 µg/g). However, the combination of 25% roselle + 50% ginger + 25% turkey berry had the best Na (6402.44 µg/g) and Zn (0.42 µg/g). The results from the sensory analyses revealed that tea made from the combination of 50% roselle + 25% ginger + 25% turkey berry was the most preferr...
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Papers by Ernest Teye