Effect of water yam (Dioscoreaalata) flour fortified with distiller's spent grain on nutritional, chemical, and functional properties

It was envisaged that the inclusion of treated distiller's spent grain (DSG) to yam flour might increase its nutritional value, with the aim of reducing nutritional diseases in communities consuming yam as a staple. Hence, yam flour was fortified with DSG at 5-35%. The effects of this fortification on the nutritional, chemical, and functional properties of yam flour were investigated. The result showed a significant increase (P ≤ 0.001) in fat, ash, protein, total amino acids, total dietary fiber, and insoluble dietary fiber contents of the blends as DSG increased except for starch and soluble dietary fiber contents, which decreased. The functional properties showed a significant (P ≤ 0.001) reduction with DSG inclusion. The inclusion of DSG increased both the tryptophan and methionine contents of the blends. Therefore, the DSG fortified yam flour could contribute to quality protein intake in populations consuming yam as a staple, due to its indispensible amino acid content.