Consumer acceptability and nutritional composition of oyster mushroom shito

Abstract

Mushroom has been accepted as one of food commodity with unique flavour and valued by humans as culinary wonder. The study aimed to examine consumer preference and quality expectation of oyster mushroom shito, evaluate the effect of different drying methods on the nutritional composition of oyster mushroom powder, evaluate consumer acceptability of oyster mushroom shito and to determine the physicochemical composition of oyster mushroom shito. The experimental design used for the study was completely randomized design (CRD) for both treatments of the method of drying for the oyster mushroom and the preparation of the shito samples. Oyster mushrooms was dried using three different drying methods (oven drying, sun drying and shade drying) to obtain oyster mushroom powder which was tested at the laboratory for its nutritional composition and then used to prepare oyster mushroom shito which was also tested for its physicochemical composition. It was seen in the results that; the oyster mushroom powder(s) had varying nutritional composition. Results from consumer panelist on the preference and quality expectation of shito revealed that consumers of shito prefer to have sweet aftertaste with mean (4.18), neither tasty nor very tasty (3.17) for tastiness, either spicy or not spicy (3.11) for spiciness and the least expectation was mouthfeel where respondents preferred neither smooth nor rough (2.93) shito. For the sensory evaluation and consumer acceptability of the samples of shito, the results revealed varying mean for all quality sensory attributes. Results from the physiochemical composition of the oyster mushroom shito showed varying composition in terms of protein, fat, fiber, moisture, free fatty acids, but colour had the same range for all the samples. The study concludes that oyster mushroom can be used to prepare shito however, different drying methods affects it nutritional composition. The study therefore recommends that more studies should be done on different drying methods and its effect on the nutritional composition