Moruf Oke

• Professor
• Professor at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology

Background: Africans have found millet as a source of plant-based protein and energy. Substitution of other high demand cereals with millets can prove useful as they can improve health and decrease the risks of diseases.. Objective: Proximate, thermal, functional, and pasting properties of millet flours from selected varieties (pearl, finger, kodo...

This study used two methodologies to model microwave drying kinetics of tomato slices: artificial neural networks (ANN) and the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). The tomatoes were pre-treated with water blanching (WBP), ascorbic acid (AAP), and sodium metabisulphite (SBP). The tomatoes were then dried in the microwave at 90, 180, and 3...

This research work characterized and screened local rice varieties in order to select the most suitable variety for production of ready-to-eat breakfast meals through extrusion cooking. Eight improved FARO 61–67 paddy rice varieties were milled, characterised and screened for extrusion properties. The milling characteristics, axial dimensional, phy...

The effect of degree of milling (DOMs) between 0 and 12% on proximate and mineral composition, physicochemical, colour, and pasting properties of broken brown rice from the FARO 64 rice variety were evaluated. Each milling level reduced the ash, protein, fat, and fibre content. Ash and fibre were removed most at 9% DOM. Maximum fat loss was observe...

Ready-to-eat (RTE) breakfast meals developed from brown rice milled to 9% degree of milling (DOM) were investigated for chemical composition, sensory properties, and glycemic response. A twin-screw laboratory extruder operated at 20 kg/h constant feed rate, 15.5% feed moisture, 284.5 rpm screw speed, and 176.5 o C barrel temperature was used. The o...

Variation in the colour of dried tomatoes is frequently a problem for both consumers and processors. This study investigated digital imaging and applied soft-computational modelling using the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) to evaluate the surface colour of microwave-dried tomato slices. The tomatoe...

Cassava processing for various products requires an efficient peeling process. However, peeling-the first step in its processing-has been considered laborious and time-consuming; hence, the need for full mechanization. Several mechanical peeling approaches have been exploited by researchers toward achieving ideal peeling. In this study, an innovati...

In most developing nations, there has been an increase in the consumption of wheat-based products, particularly biscuits, due to recent lifestyle changes and rapid urbanization. Due to this, there has been a sudden rise in research into creating flour from locally grown cereals or legumes to satisfy consumer demand. As a result, the potential for m...

Tomatoes are a perishable agricultural product due to their high nutritive values and moisture content. However, they are prone to wastage and spoilage during their seasonal period. The quest for healthy dried tomato products by consumers necessitates the need to evaluate and model the quality traits of microwave-dried tomatoes. The soft-computatio...

Excessive heating with hot-air oven dryers produces considerable losses in the quality of dried tomatoes, particularly in the organoleptic and colour characteristics. Thus, process parameters need to be optimised to minimise detrimental colour quality changes that might not be easily achieved using sophisticated colour detection devices. While a si...

Food processors and consumers frequently worry about the inconsistent colour of dried tomatoes. To minimize detrimental color changes, process parameters need to be optimized. Thus, digital imaging with the Photoshop software and optimization with the Taguchi technique were explored to determine the surface color of microwave-dried tomato slices. T...

The thermal properties (specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and thermal diffusivity) of jack bean seed (Canavalia ensiformis) were determined for usage in designing the equipment necessary for thermal processes. These thermal properties were determined at 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 % moisture contents (wb) and temperatures at 30, 40, and 50oC...

The physical and thermal properties of Jack bean seed (Canavalia ensiformis) were investigated. The physical properties were determined using standard measuring instruments while the thermal properties were determined using KD2 Pro at 30°C with moisture ranging from 5 to 25 %. The average mean values of 460 jack bean seeds were 18.21 mm for length,...

Postharvest processing of cassava requires peeling as a unit operation, and it has been well documented that peeling is a major challenge of cassava processing. This study presents a recently developed cassava peeling machine made from locally available engineering materials. The machine has a capacity of 8 tonnes/day with the dual role of peeling...

The optimization of processing parameters for hot air drying of tomato slices using the Taguchi technique was investigated. The tomato samples were water blanched, ascorbic acid (ASA), and sodium metabisulfite pretreated. Thereafter sliced into 4, 6, and 8 mm thickness and dried at 40, 50, and 60°C air temperatures following Taguchi's experimental...

The effect of the processing parameters on the microwave drying of tomatoes was investigated and the process was optimized by using Taguchi technique. Pretreatments (water blanching (WAB), ascorbic acid (ASA) and sodium metabisulphite (SMB)), slice thickness (4 mm, 6 mm and 8 mm) and microwave power level (90W, 180W and 360W) were the parameters us...

The drying characteristics of osmotically pretreated red onion slices via hot air oven at different drying temperatures (40°C to 80°C) and 1.5 m/s air velocity was investigated. Fresh onion bulb was manually sliced (4 ± 0.2 mm) and pretreated in 20% osmotic solution (sucrose, salt and water in ratio 1:1:4 weight in grams) for 2 hours. Eight drying...

Adsorption and desorption isotherms for Moringa oleifera leaves were investigated using concentrated H2SO4 solutions to vary the micro-climate over different temperatures (27, 32, 37°C) and water activity (aw) (0.1–0.8). Plots of equilibrium moisture content (EMC) against aw were used to generate isotherm curves, local isotherm (Li) concept and sta...

Cyanogenic glycosides are natural plant toxins that are present in several plants, most of which are consumed by humans. Cyanide is formed following the hydrolysis of cyanogenic glycosides that occur during crushing of the edible plant material either during consumption or during processing of the food crop. Exposure to cyanide from unintentional o...

Engineering properties of composite corn‐banana custard flour (CF) products developed by incorporating native, heat‐moisture treated or annealed banana starch (BS) as a percentage (15, 25 or 35%) of the composite were determined. Morphological study showed bigger oval BS granules occupying void spaces in the matrix resulting in more compact composi...

Adequate nutrition during infancy and childhood is vital to proper growth of a child to a healthy adult. At certain age (6-24 months) during infancy, children are fed with complementary food in order to meet up with their high nutrient requirements. Although protein rich complementary foods produced from animal milk are good complementary foods for...

The thin layer drying behaviour of tomato slices dried using hybrid drying method as well as solar and open sun drying was investigated. Six thin layer drying models (Page, Logarithmic, Henderson and Pabis, Newton (Lewis), Wang and Singh and Parabolic) were used to optimize the goodness of fit to the experimental data. The models were compared usin...

The effects of annealing and heat-moisture treatment (HMT) on the properties of South African cooking banana (Musa sapietum) starch (CBS) and plantain (Musa paradisiaca) starch (PS) were compared. CBS generally had significantly (p < 0.05) higher swelling power, solubility and water absorption capacity. While both methods of modification employed e...

Gari, a West African staple food was processed using fresh cassava tubers (TMS 30572 cultivar). Material losses and garification rate index as affected by the cassava ages of maturity, fermentation days and processing stages were determined. The material losses and yield of gari from 9, 12 and 15 months old cassava plants at different processing st...

Kunun-zaki, a beverage popular among the Northern Nigerians lacks varieties in terms of taste and flavor, because it is made from cerealsonly. This has accounted for the low demand and intake of the beverage in other parts of the country. There is therefore the need to add variety to the convectional kunun-zaki and also increase its nutritional val...

Tomato is one of the main sources of dietary lycopene intake in humans and its intake in high proportions could therefore be a cheap and easy way of preventing degenerative diseases in developing countries. The present work studies the accumulation pattern of lycopene and beta-carotene as well as the variation of the biochemical and physiological c...

The nutritional and anti-nutritional compositions of African Yam Bean (AYB) and Lima bean flours under different processing methods were determined. Nutritional and anti-nutritional properties studied include moisture content, crude protein, crude fibre, ash content, ether extract, carbohydrate, tannin, protease inhibitor and phytate. The moisture...

Purpose of review: The aims of this review are: (1) to highlight the most significant changes occurring during on-tree ripening as preharvest factors affecting fruit quality at time of harvest, with special interest on the content of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity; and (2) to provide insights in terms of quality maintenance during pos...

The thin-layer drying behavior of tiger nut seeds dried using hot air, solar drier and open sun drying was investigated. The drying took place in the falling rate period. Six thin-layer drying equations were used to fit the drying data. For oven drying, the parabolic model had the highest correlation coefficients, R2 of 0.972 to 0.990 and the lowes...

Three drying methods (sun-, cabinet and oven-drying) were investigated on some quality attributes of flour produced from cocoyam, Colocasia esculenta Schott (taro). The proximate and physico-chemical compositions were determined to investigate the nutritional value and the characteristic properties of the cocoyam flour. It was observed that all par...

Water yam (Dioscorea alata) flour was processed using standard wet milling procedure prior to the extrusion process, which led to the determination of extrudate properties of the flours. A single-screw extruder (DCE 330, NJ) was used in evaluating the extrudate properties, which included torque, mass flow rate, residence time, specific mechanical e...

The thin layer drying behaviour of tomato slices dried using microwave power densities of 1.13, 2.08 and 3.11 W/g combinedwith air ventilation (50 degrees C) and hot air drying at 40, 50, 70 and 80 degrees C was investigated. The tomato slice dried faster when subjected to microwave heating coupled with hot air ventilation. Drying time decreased co...

The effect of fermentation on physicochemical properties and oxalate content of cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta) flour was evaluated. The cocoyam, white flesh was cleaned, washed, peeled, sliced into chips of 2–2.5 cm thickness, soaked in tap water and left to ferment for 24 h and 48 h. The fermented cocoyam was then drained, dried in cabinet dryer at...

The effects of variation of temperature (-18 to 33°C) and geometries (slab and cylinder) on some thermo-physical properties of white yam were investigated. The measured parameters were density, specific heat, and thermal diffusivity at constant moisture level of 72.7% ± ± ± ± 0.69 (wet basis) using transient heat transfer method. Both the density a...

The sorption isotherm of food material is pertinent in the processing and storage of food products. Adsorption and desorption isotherms for maize flour were investigated using the static gravimetric method over the range of temperature (27–40 °C) and water activity (aw) (0.10–0.80) commonly experienced in the tropical environment. The experimental...

Water yam (Dioscorea alata) flour was processed using standard wet milling procedure prior to the extrusion process, which led to the determination of extrudate properties of the flours. A single-screw extruder (DCE 330, NJ) was used in evaluating the extrudate properties, which included torque, mass flow rate, residence time, specific mechanical e...