Chapter 2- Literature review
2.4 The potential of Bambara groundnut for use in addressing PEM in children of SSA
2.4.5 Consumer acceptance of Bambara groundnut in SSA
48 Some taboos associated with consumption of BGN also affects its utilization. In Malawi, it is a common belief that BGN resemble bullets as such all people whose line of work predispose them to gunshot such as hunters, soldiers, police officers and criminals desist from consuming it.
Traditional doctors also use BGN as part of herbal medicine to protect an individual or a household from being attacked by witches. In such cases, the households are advised not to cook or consume BGN. BGN, which have two seeds in one pod, are also used as part of a love portion so that a husband does not have extramarital affairs just as a pair of doves. As such, some men do not eat BGN, while those who beg are usually given shelled nuts (Pungulani et al. 2010).
Therefore, for BGN crop to gain popularity there is need to promote its utilization by increasing its production. This would benefit poor families, as surplus production would be sold. For example, in Bida, a central region of Nigeria, women have been reported to make pan cakes from BGN flour and reportedly enjoy a living selling them and in Mali, salted BGN are being sold by women, a premium production that is similar to macadamia nuts suitable for urban areas and possible for export as well (Begermann et al. 2002). It is also likely to find ready markets both at home and abroad as product that wouldadd value to the crop would be developed as well.
The consumer acceptance of BGN in SSA will be discussed in the next section.
49 had mean scores for all sensory attributes indicating very much liking whether the red or cream varieties of BGN were used in the preparation of the flour. However, when HQBF was used in other traditional food, (akla/koose) significantly lower scores for texture/consistency, mouthfeel and taste were obtained (i.e. moderate liking). When the suitability of HQBF for traditional food uses among the food processors/cooked food vendors in Northern Ghana was further examined, the results showed a good acceptance of HQBF over the traditional flour that the respondents were used to. HQBF was found to the have good flavour and not possessing the typical raw beany flavour associated with the traditional flour (Plahar et al. 2002).
In Mozambique, Pungulani et al. (2010) found that most BGN consumers prefers the white variety with white bud) (otapo), followed by white with black bud and brown variety. The otapo was reported to be sweeter whereas the brown bitter and its shell rigid, thus its cooking becomes difficult. Children fed on BGN for a relatively period of time were reported to be fat and stronger (Pungulani et al. 2010).
In Kenya, Brough et al. (1993) compared BGN milk with milks from other commercialized beans such as cowpea, pigeon pea, green bean and black bean in terms of preferences.
Differences among the groups were shown, with the adults, both men and women ranking in this order: first cowpea, BGN, pigeon pea, green bean and lastly black bean, whereas in young people the preference changed a little where BGN gained the first to the detriment of cowpea and other legumes maintained the place rank (Brough et al. 1993).
Pungulani et al. (2010) determined the consumer acceptance of six cooked BGN varieties in Malawi. The results of the average acceptability is shown in Table 3.
50 Table 3. The acceptability rating of the six BGN varieties
BGN variety Average acceptability rating
2768 6.15 ± 1.7
181 cream 5.87 ± 1.0
181 red 5.75 ± 1.1
Chikope cha nyani 6.44 ± 1.4
Mazira a mpheta 5.50 ± 2.0
The authors concluded that there is potential for BGN acceptance and consumption in Malawi (Pungulani et al. 2010). In another study Pungulani et al. (2010) also investigated the consumer acceptance of the following BGN dishes: chuwa, chipere, roasted, stewed and seasoned BGN, mndavwa and mixed BGN with cooked maize. In their findings, chuwa and stewed and seasoned nuts dishes were most preferred by the consumers. There was however a preference for small- sized nuts for the stewed dish as large-sized were reported to be mouthful and were disliked by the consumers Pungulani et al. (2010).
In Nigeria, fresh paste from BGN was found to produce moin-moin that was equally accepted in all attributes compared to moin-moin from fresh cowpea paste. The colour, flavour, texture, taste and overall acceptability scores of moin-moin made with BGN flour from steeped cold water and from blanched hot water were rated similarly to those of moin-moin from fresh pastes (controls).
However, the moin-moin from steam blanching treatment had low rated colour, flavour, taste, texture and overall acceptance. Roasted sample produced less firm moin-moin. This could have been attributed to heat damage to its biopolymers constituents. Poor rating of the samples that were prepared by steam blanching and roasting was due to low dehulling ability and high least gelation concentration. The authors concluded that it is possible to produce acceptable moin-
51 moin from BGN (Olapade and Adetuyi 2007). It is likely that compositing BGN with PABM in developing a complementary food will improve the acceptance of the resulting blend. The complementary feeding process is discussed in the next section.