Effect of blending ratio on nutritional composition and sensory acceptability of injera produced from teff, cassava and orange-fleshed sweet potato composite flour

Injera is consumed as national, and usually prepared from cereal crops like teff, barley, sorghum and maize or blending cereals with root crops in Ethiopia. Commonly, it is made from teff and cassava composite flour which are poor source of vitamin A. Hence, this study was aimed to produce vitamin A rich injera by blending with vitamin A rich root crops like orange fleshed sweet potato with teff and cassava composite flour. Raw materials were collected from Arba Minch Agricultural Research Center. Teff, cassava, and orange-fleshed sweet potato flour samples were prepared based on scientific procedures and packed with polyethylene bags for further laboratory analysis. The injera samples were evaluated nutritional and beta carotene based procedures and sensory acceptability by using 50 untrained panelists. The conversion factor of 6 µg Trans β-carotene per one micro gram (1µg) retinol equivalent (1µg β-carotene = 0.167µg RE) was used to determine vitamin A.  The data for beta-carotene content, nutritional and sensory acceptability of injera samples were analyzed by using one way analysis of variance. The result had showed significance difference for injera made from blending ratio of teff, cassava and orange flashed sweet potato at p<0.05 for its nutritional composition, but had not showed significance difference in sensory acceptability of injera samples. Moreover, beta-carotene content was below detection limit for teff alone injera sample while highest (198µg/g) was measured from 60% teff, 20% cassava and 20% orange-fleshed sweet potato composite flour injera sample which shows orange fleshed sweet potato has great role in enhancing vitamin A content of teff and cassava composite flour injera in study area.