ABSTRACT
Cereal gruels are an important staple food in humid part of Africa, and commonly used as weaning food for children and the convalescents. This study sought to evaluate the effect of sieving; an important step in production of gruel. The cereal were soaked with distilled water for 72 hr, rinsed, and wet-milled, thereafter, portioned into two (sieved and Unsieved), and freeze dried. The nutritional value, mineral content, glycemic index, and α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory ability of cereal gruels were investigated. The results make known that Unsieved gruel had a higher (p > .05) nutritional value and mineral content than sieved gruel. The sieved gruel had higher free sugar and glycemic index than the Unsieved. Nonetheless, the gruel extract inhibited α-amylase and α-glucosidase activity judging by their IC50 values in vitro. Based on the results of this study, it can be argued that unsieved gruels had better nutritional contents than sieved gruel. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Cereal gruels are commonly used as weaning food for children and the convalescence, there are concerns about the nutritional value of the food over the time, and this had led to different ways of enhancing the nutritional value through fortification with other substance but the originality of the food is being eroded. However, exclusion of sieving in the processing step, improves the nutritional value of the gruel.