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This study aims to assess the quality characteristics and acceptability of cookies from sweet potato–maize flour blends and to determine nutritional quality, color and palatability traits and to compare the effects with that of wheat cookies, so as to suggest a cost-effective production method to bakers and retailers. This would ensure food security, enhanced health, combat malnutrition problems and improve the production of the crops.

Cookies were prepared by the method reported by Okaka and Isieh (1990), Abayomi et al. (2013), Onabanjo and Ighere (2014) with modification. Flour (200 g) from each sample of different flour blends was used for the experiment. Sugar (80 g) was creamed with margarine (100 g) until light and fluffy constituency was obtained using Kenwood chef with initial minimum speed, and the speed increased stepwise until the mark of 6 on the chef indicator was attained. Whole egg (60 g) was added, then followed by flour (200 g), powdered milk (20 g), baking powder (0.1 g) and salt (1 g) were added and mixed until a stiff paste (batter) was obtained. The batter was rolled on a floured board using a rolling pin to a thickness of 0.2-0.3 cm. The rolled batter was cut into circular shapes with a cutter and arranged on a greased tray and baked at 1500°C for 20 minutes. The cookies were brought out, cooked and packaged in cellophane bag until used for laboratory analysis.

The results revealed that substitution of sweet potato flour with maize flour significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the protein from 6.8-4.4 per cent, moisture from 5.3-5.0 per cent, crude fibre from 3.4-2.5 per cent and fat from 9.8-8.5 per cent of the composite flours and the cookies. The ash and sugar contents were increased from 4.3-5.8 per cent for ash and 2.1-3.9 per cent for sugar with increase in sweet potato flour substitution. The calorific value of the cookies decreased from 457-397 cal/100 g as the percentage of sweet potato flour increased in the maize flour cookies. Sensory evaluation results showed that the colour, texture, taste and overall acceptability changed significantly (p < 0.05) with increase in sweet potato flour substitution. The optimum substitution level was 40 per cent; above this, the product becomes less acceptable to the consumer.

Fabrication and production processing machines that use sweet potato will be a great challenge.

This research is of value to the bakery industry or retailers. The optimum substitution level of sweet potato flour was 40 per cent, and it appears to be a promising measure from the view of practicability. The relative ease of getting sweet potato flour makes it superior to other imported flour like wheat and in reducing cost of importation of wheat to Nigeria.

Yam flour (YMF) is an important staple food in the tropics but its utilization is limited by low nutrient and consumer acceptability. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of substituting yam flour with grain amaranth on chemical and sensory properties.

YMF and grain amaranth flour (GAF) were prepared on a dry matter basis; GAF was mixed with YMF at ratio 1:3. All flour samples were subjected to chemical (moisture, protein, fat, ash, crude fibre, carbohydrate and minerals) evaluation and sensory evaluation of the stiff gel was conducted by a ten‐member panel consisting of five adult males and five females.

GAF increased the protein content of YMF significantly at p < 0.05 from 1.8 to 9.63 per cent. There was a decrease in carbohydrate content of YAF when substituted with GAF. There was a significant increase (at p < 0.05) in phosphorus and sodium elements when YMF was substituted with GAF. There was no significant difference in acceptability of gel from grain amaranth and yam flour (GAF–YMF) compared with whole YMF gel on colour, texture, flavour and overall acceptability.

It was apparent that substitution of YMF with GAF improved nutrient composition without affecting the acceptability. This will further improve the nutritional status of people in YMF‐consuming areas.

Childhood under‐nutrition remains a major health problem in resource‐poor settings like the rural areas in Nigeria. The purpose of this paper is to determine the types and nutrient adequacy of complementary foods used in a rural area.

The most frequently used (52 percent) homemade complementary food (HCF) in the area was studied, employing questionnaire, standardization of recipe and chemical analysis to evaluate the complementary food and to suggest improvement.

Two varieties of local beans (white and brown) were used in the preparation of HCF in the study area. They were either peeled to remove the coat or unpeeled. There was no significant difference (p<0.05) in the protein content of the HCF made from the two varieties. Using any of the beans unpeeled children between the ages of six and eight months meet their energy and protein requirement. The calcium, iron, and zinc contents of HCF from the two bean varieties were low.

This paper may be the first to evaluate HCF using mothers' method of preparation.

The aim of the study is to assess the dietary diversity score (DDS) and nutritional status of women in the University of Agriculture extension village in rural areas of Ogun State, Nigeria.

A representative sample of 204 women was surveyed from the rural villages in two seasons using simple random technique. A pretested interview guide was used to collect information on personal data, and socio demographic characteristics of the subjects. Information on dietary diversity was obtained using Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project questionnaire (FANTA). Body mass index (BMI), waist‐hip ratio (WHR) and skin fold thickness were used in classifying obesity. Information on food intake was obtained from 24‐hour dietary recall techniques. For each season, a DDS was computed and the nutritional status was assessed. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics; SPSS software package version 16.0.

The socio economic characteristic revealed that more than half (53 percent) had no formal education, 59 percent were small scale farmers. The DDS increased from 3.55±7.6 to 3.93±4.3 between the two seasons. DDS within the various food groups showed that fruit group increased from 0.48±0.20 to 0.52.±0.10, vegetable group 0.60±0.30 to 0.66±0.30, and meat group 0.48±0.20 to 0.58±0.30 while cereals/grain groups and oil/dairies group decreased from 0.42±0.30 to 0.37, 0.11±0.30 to 0.09, respectively, between the two seasons. The nutrient content of the subjects was calculated from nutrient contents of foods obtained from food composition tables and compared to dietary reference intake (DRI). The results showed that the protein, energy and fat intakes of the subjects increased significantly during the rainy season (p<0.05). Two percent of the subjects gained weight, 4 percent had weight reduction from overweight and obese category. The result of the waist‐hip ratio showed that 78 percent had normal waist‐hip ratio, 14 percent had overweight, and 7 percent were obese. The dietary diversity score of the subjects was low. There is need for nutritional education in the villages.

This may be the first research work to assess the dietary diversity score of rural women in Nigeria.

The Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme (HGSHP) in Nigeria provides primary school pupils across the country with one meal daily. The purpose of this paper is to standardize the HGSHP meals in Osun State and determine the energy, protein and mineral contribution to the school children's daily nutrient intake.

All the HGSHP meals served school children were studied. Questionnaire, standardization of recipe and chemical analysis were employed to evaluate the HGSHP meals and to suggest improvement.

All the meals were cooked. Dishes composed of a mixture of a legume (cowpea) commonly called beans, a cereal (maize or rice) or tuber (yam) taken with a soup or stew and fish or egg. The bean meals were high in protein and carbohydrate. All the dishes had very low zinc content and did not meet 30 per cent of the school children's daily zinc requirements.

This paper may be the first to evaluate the nutritional contribution of school meals in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how socio-cultural beliefs and practices could influence the knowledge, attitude and perception of insecticide-treated net (ITN) use in the control of malaria amongst pregnant women attending antenatal clinic.

Data were gathered using interviews and documentary review. Framework analysis was applied to classify emerging themes and the findings interpreted using the health belief model.

The findings showed that the pregnant women had appreciable knowledge, both the positive and negative attitudes and the perceptions of insecticide treated nets. To most of them, sleeping under an ITN would not affect pregnancy/cause abortion, but rather prevent mosquito bites and associated malaria.

The limitations include the sample size of participants and health facilities used. Lack of application of a quantitative research method meant that the authors could not quantify the findings to ensure generalisation to the entire population.

The findings suggest that health policy makers, implementers and health professionals need to appreciate the perception and the attitude of pregnant women when designing policy guidelines for the malaria control programme.

This paper helps to elucidate on how socio-cultural beliefs and practices could influence the knowledge, attitude and perception of ITN usage amongst both pregnant women and people in malaria endemic communities.

This paper suggests that health policy makers, implementers and health professionals have to devise strategies to address socio-cultural beliefs and practices in the scaling up of malaria control programmes.

This study aims to explore dietary diversity (DD) and nutritional status of adolescents among rural farm households in Southwestern Nigeria. It analyses whether higher commercialization levels of farm households translate to better nutrition.

This study was conducted in Ogun and Oyo States of Southwestern Nigeria, using primary data from 352 farm households with a total of 160 adolescent members. The individual version of dietary diversity score (DDS) of nine food groups was used to calculate adolescent DDS over a 24-h recall period. World Health Organization AnthroPlus software was used in analyzing adolescents’ anthropometric data (height-for-age z-score and body mass index-for-age z-score) while household crop commercialization index (CCI) was estimated for each farm household. Separate logit models were used to examine the drivers of adolescents’ DD and malnutrition.

The study findings indicated that 100% of the adolescents consumed starchy staples while 0%, 3.1% and 12.5% consumed organ meat, milk/milk products and eggs, respectively. Results revealed that 74.1% and 21.2% of boys were stunted and thin while the prevalence in adolescent girls was 50.7% and 9.3%, respectively. Prevalence of stunting was found to be very high (60%–83%) in all the four CCI levels’ households indicating that belonging to highly commercialized households (CCI 3–4) may not necessarily translate to better nutrition of adolescent members. Food expenditure (p < 0.01) and access to piped water (p < 0.01) negatively influenced adolescents’ stunting mainly because of lower expenditure on food items and lower percent of household having access to piped water, respectively, while education (p < 0.01) had positive effects on adolescents’ DD.

Previous studies have contributed to the body of knowledge concerning the link between agricultural commercialization and nutrition using under-five children of the households. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigated the influence of CCI on DDS and nutritional status of adolescent members of farm households in Nigeria. This study fills this existing knowledge gap in investigating adolescents’ DD and malnutrition among smallholder farm households.

This study was aimed to develop and evaluate nutritional efficacy and bio-efficacy of food products from plantain, soycake, rice-bran and oat-bran flour.

The flour samples were blended as follows: plantain 70% and soycake 30% (PS); plantain 65%, soycake 30% and rice bran 5% (PSR); plantain 65%, soycake 30% and oat bran 5% (PSO); and plantain 60%, soycake 30%, rice bran 5% and oat bran 5% (PSRO). Antioxidant and nutritional properties of the blended foods and controls (100% plantain and Cerolina) were determined.

Protein (16.2–19.4 g/100g) and biological values (98.5–99.3%) of the food samples were significantly (p = 0.03) higher than 100% plantain (5 g/100g, 31.6%) and Cerolina (17.9 g/100g, 98.3%). Pack cell volume (36.2–42%), serum protein (7.3–9.3 mg/dL), urea/creatinine (1.1–2.8) and aspartate-aminotransferase/alanine-aminotransferase ratio (0.9–1) of the foods were significantly (p = 0.03, 0.01, 0.02 and <0.01, respectively) higher than 100% plantain (28%, 1.6 mg/dL, 4.6 and 0.8) and Cerolina (46%, 4.9 mg/dL, 3 and 0.73). In vivo antioxidant activity of the food samples decreased from PSRO to PSO, PSR and PS, respectively and were higher than control samples. Nutritional performance of formulated foods in rats was similar to that of Cerolina, but higher than in 100% plantain. Cerolina and 100% plantain were rated higher in overall acceptability than formulated foods; however, PSO was most preferred followed by PSRO for the formulated foods.

The study established that PSRO was rated best in terms of nutrition, growth performance and antioxidant activities. Hence, this food may be suitable as functional food to prevent malnutrition and oxidative stress.

This study aims to examine senior male employees’ perspectives on the glass ceiling in the Nigerian banking sector.

The data were collected qualitatively using interviews with 43 senior male employees in four Nigerian banks.

This study finds that senior male employees acknowledge the challenges their female counterparts face concerning promotion. Senior male employees’ views on the value of gender-diverse leadership underscore the illusion of a “level playing field” because of a gender-neutral performance policy and a family–friendly policy for women. Nonetheless, the study notes a divergence in senior male employees’ perspectives about the professional progression of female employees (based majorly on age and ethnicity). The study concludes that the organisational culture and leadership that underpin poor female career progression are embedded in and driven by the culture in the empirical context.

The examination of senior male employees’ perspectives on the glass ceiling in the Nigerian banking sector offers significant theoretical and practical contributions to the extant literature on gendered occupational segregation by providing unique insights into how patriarchal societal and occupational culture, as well as (limited) family–friendly policies for women, influence the configuration of men’s views of gendered occupational segregation in the Nigerian banking sector.