Screening food lesl pa.ramelers 10 deice I adulleration of leff (Eragroslis leI (Zucc.) Troller) flour and injera with non-edible adulteranls
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2017-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Teff(Eragrostis fe/ (Zuee .) Troner) is the main staple cereal in Ethiopia that is used to prepare a
fermented flatbread with a unique slightly spongy texture named injera. Majority of Ethiopian
diets consist of injera which accounts for about two--th irds of the daily protein intake of the
Ethiopian population. Recently, adulterat ion ofteffflour and injcra with non·cdible ingredients is
becoming a serious problem puning the consumers' health at risk. Therefore, the main purpose of
th is study is to screen some of the common food analyses test parameters that could detect nonedible
adu lterants in lef[ flour and injera for potent ial use in future routi ne inspection ana lysis.
In the study, simulation of the adulteration was made on two widely distributed white teffvarieti es,
namely Quncho TefT (DZ-Cr-387) and Magna TefT (DZ-O 1-196). Three adulterants were selected
based on the information gathered from local health bureau, namely Sawdust (organic adulterant)
and two inorganic adu lterants, chalk powder (calcium carbonate) and gypsum (calcium sulphate
dihydrate). Based on the information gathered, the lefT to adulterant ratio was (7:3). Thus, the
primary investigation was conducted on this adulteration ratio. Accordingly, the analyt ical tests at
this adulteration ratio resulted in a significant mean value difference between the adulterated and
control teff nour samples.
Secondary investigation was done by preparing injera using lower ratio ofteff nour to adulterants
(9.5:0.5), (9: I), (8.5: 1.5), (8:2) and (7.5:2.5), while unadu lterated (100%) teO' nour injera was used
as control. Ratios resulting in acceptab le injcra appearance were used as cut-off adulteration ratios
to apply the selected test parameters. The final investigation was conducted using the cut-off
adulteration ratio, on which the selected test parameters were applied to compare significant mean
differences (p < 0.05) between control and adulterated tefTnour and injera samples.
The overall results of the physicochemical analysis showed that some parameters like crude ash,
and crude fib re, and mineral analysis of calcium could be used as detection test parameters for
samples as low as 5% adulteration ratio. Qualitative tests such as effervescence and precipitation
are also effective tests to detect adulteration. Therefore, this study provides test parameters for
preliminary teIT flour and injera adulteration detection, which can further be developed by
concerned bodies to come up with standard analytical procedu res for the detection leff and te IT
injera with the tested and other simi lar adu lterants.
Description
Keywords
Flour and injera with non-edible adulteranls