SENSORY EVALUATION OF MENUS PRODUCED FROM SOYA BEANS (A STUDY OF SOYA BEANS)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The immense benefits of soya beans must have stipulated lot of research on incorporating soya beans (Glycine max) into indigenous diets such as soy bean fortified gari and tapioca , Soy dadawa, Soy wara  and Soy-yoghurt. Soy milk is an aqueous extract of soya beans  and is quiet similar in appearance to cow milk. Soy milk is of considerable interest to nutritionist as possible substitute for cow milk and human milk. Over the years, it has been developed into a food for infants suffering from various forms of malnutrition and for individual with food allergies and diseases associated with cow milk diets, (Considine, 2007).

Soya beans have come to play a prominent role in our daily diet because of the nutritional value it contributes to various dishes. Soya beans can be processed into many products such as milk, cheese, soya beans cake which comes as an extract from soya milk and can also be used in making soya moin moin, soya beans Amala with soya Egusi/Ugwu soup, (Omojasola, 2000).

Soya beans belong to the family edible seeds of the leguminous plants and the word is derived from the Latin word (legumes). It has been found that the biological value of its protein is known to be very high and much higher than those of other vegetable protein and from animal origin because it contains practically all the essential amino acids in fairly good amount for body needs, (Sanni, 2005).

Cereal proteins which constitute the major protein source for people in many developing countries are generally of a relatively low quality because they lack-adequate amounts of the essential amino acid especially lysine, (Popoola ,2007). However, they contain relatively low protein, and other sulphur amino acids. Therefore, consuming a mixture of soya beans protein the nutritional quality of the protein from either source can upgrade the nutrition of the people who now subsist on protein deficient diets especially in Nigeria.

It is therefore necessary to investigate how soya beans could be put to use to complement the deficiency in the protein of our staple food like yam, cassava, maize e.t.c further more, with the difficult of obtaining imported food these days, the use of soya beans in enriching meal can break Nigerian menu monopoly and go a long way in saving substantial foreign exchange for Nigeria.

However, protein content is only one of the factors that make soyabeans a potential answer to inadequate nutrition. As with many food, soyabeans should not be considered as a  sole sources of nutrition, but when  combined with other  foods, soyabeans especially as a protein sources can go a  long way in upgrading the nutrition of million of people throughout the world.

Soy-based foods may provide additional benefits for consumer due to their hypolipidemic and anticholesterolemic properties with reduced allergenicity

(Sipos, 2008). Soybeans are considered an inexpensive source of high-quality protein (38%-55%) that are abundantly rich in lysine and essential amino-acid that are deficient in most cereal grains but low in sulphur amino-acids, lutein and xanthenes.

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