CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Introduction
Plantain (Musa paradisacal) is among the major tropical staple foods (Dzomeku et al., 2006). It is known that cooking methods or processing techniques of foods often lead to losses of vitamins and other nutrients such as vitamin up to 90% depending of the cooking or processing used (Penelope and Ritu, 2003). In Nigeria, steaming, roasting and frying are the most commonly used cooking methods (Omotosho et al., 2015). The type of oil, oil temperature and time of frying affect the attributes of finished products. Low oil temperature may lead to higher oil uptake into the fried foods (Mba et al., 2015). Cooking of foods leads to the improvement of microbiological and organoleptic qualities, destroy toxins and ant nutritional factors increase digestibility and nutrients bioavailability (Erdman and Schneider, 1994), unfortunately these procedures cause the loss of some of the micronutrients in foods ( yang and Gadi 2008) l .micronutrients such as the water soluble vitamin and the fat soluble vitamins though thermo sensitive are important in the stimulation of immune system, liver disorder, fight against cancer and cardiovascular diseases (Farvin et al., 2009). In view of their importance in human health, this work was initiated to evaluate the effects of frying in boiling oil bath on the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) contents of plantains There are two different methods for making plantain chips, one of Which is to deep fry thin slices of plantain in hot oil, in the same way as potato chips or crisps. The other is to dry slices plantain either in sun or using a solar or artificial dryer (Mepba et al., 2007). The product made by the two methods are quite different, the deep fried chips tend to be a savory high calories content because they are deep fried in oil they have a fairly short shelf life (Abdullah, 2014).
The chemical composition of plantain varies with the variety, maturity degree of ripeness and where it is grown (soil type). The water content in the green plant is about 61% and increases on ripening to about 68%. The increase in water content is presumably due to breakdown of carbohydrate during respiration, plantain is very rich in mineral such as iron calcium, phosphorus and also rich in vitamin B6 (Phyromide) and they also contain high sugar content especially when ripe (Marriott et al, 1981).
They are good sources of vitamins and minerals particularly iron, potassium, calcium, vitamin A, ascorbic acid, thiamin, riboflarin and niacun. (Adeniyi et al, 2006)
As the fruit ripens sugar content increases while starch content decreases, green plantain can be stored for up to seven days at room temperature up to 20 days under refrigeration (Akinyemi et al, 2010).
Plantain can be made into chips and sun dried to reduce moisture content to a barest minimal. This will stop the growth of spoilage organisms and increase the shelf life of the stored product (Abdullah, 2014) which give a sweet tasting high calories and more attractive product (Ogazi, 1996). Frying remove some of the water, gelatinizes the starch, destroys enzymes and micro-organisms and give a crisp product with a characteristic among and taste low moisture content inhibits microbial growth and packaging prevents recontamination (Yang and Gad, 2008). The type of oil temperature may lead to higher uptake into the fried foods cooking of food leads to the improvement of microbiological and organoleptic qualities destroys toxins factors increase digestibility and nutrient bioavailability the different type of oil to be used are palm oil, the palm oil gives products a red color while the groundnut oil, soya and olive oil will give a golden brown color (musa, 2002). and the sliced plantain is dropped gently into the heated oil and allow to fry golden brown color and crisp texture fried are removed, drained and allowed to cool and package (Adeniji 2005). The frying oil has great impact on the plantain chip of the taste column and keeping final product improper packaging of fried plantain wastage (Dadjiel and Orchard, 2006). Plantain product is usually limited to be either chips or flour where as there are varieties that that can be obtain from plantain this research work is to make other variety of plantain like chips. Production of plantain is a seasonal consumption is all year round and therefore there is the need to cut down on the post harvest losses by processing than into forms with reduced moisture content plantain has having an increasing surplus production since 2001 (Dankyet , 2007).
1.2 Aims and Objectives
1. To produce plantain chip using different types of vegetable oils palm oil, groundnut oil, soya oil and olive oil.
2. To determine physical and chemical qualities of the plantain chips
To determine sensory qualities of the chips
