Development Of Secondary Food Forms Of Cocoyams ( Colocasia spp)

The tubers of two cultivars of Cocoyam ( Colocasia spp) namely; Ghana cocoyam and coco-india were processed into flour and fufu flour. The flour was used as base for the preparation of secondary foods such as cakes, chin-chin, strips, bread and pancakes while the fufu flour was reconstituted and cooked into fufu (a Nigerian traditional food normally eaten with soup).The cakes, chin-chin, strips, bread and pancakes were also prepared using wheat flour to serve as control for the evaluation the various cocoyam products while yam fufu was used as a control for the various cocoyam fufu foods. A 7-point Hedonic scale was used to evaluate attributes such as colour, taste, texture and over all acceptability of the secondary cocoyam food forms. The result showed that with the exception of cakes from coco-india only secondary food forms from Ghana cocoyam were acceptable to the consumers along side the control products (P>0.05). The study has revealed high potentials of Ghana cocoyam as a base food for production of confectioneries and other traditional foods. Keywords : Cocoyam ( Colocasia spp), Ghana-cocoyam, India-cocoyam, fufu flour, cakes, chin-chin, strips, bread, pancake, confectioneries, sensory evaluation. Journal of Agriculture, Forestry and the Social Sciences Vol. 4 (2) 2006: pp. 126-130