Comparative Analysis of Nutritional Composition of Fresh to Sachet Tomato Paste and Dry Beans to Canned Beans

Abstract

Different food processing techniques are in use for improving the shelf life of food, vegetables, and beverages. Some of these methods  could have significant effects on nutritional composition of food products. Tomatoes and beans are globally used in households for a  variety of meals due to their nutritional compositions and versatility. This work was carried out to compare the nutritional composition of  fresh tomato to sachet tomato and dry beans to canned beans with the aim to identify possible change in nutritional composition that  may occur during processing. Proximate, mineral, and vitamin analysis were conducted to that effect. Percentage moisture composition  reduced from 91.8%±0.58 in fresh tomato to 76.17%±0.34 in sachet tomato while there was an increase from 14.37%±0.2 in dry beans to  61.07%±0.12 in canned beans. Sachet tomato had higher amounts of crude fat (7.57%±0.5), crude protein (2.89%±0.13), crude ash (1.67% ±0.29), and carbohydrate (10.7%±0.64). On the other hand, dry beans had higher amounts of crude protein (22.06%±0.08), carbohydrate  (45.59%±0.62), and crude fat (9.78%±0.31) with lower crude ash (4.8%±0.11) and crude fiber (3.4%±0.12) contents. Both fresh tomato and  dry beans had higher amounts of all minerals than sachet tomato and canned beans respectively. Vitamin A was higher in fresh tomato  than sachet tomato and higher in canned beans than dry beans, while reverse was the case for vitamin C. Our result indicated that  processing could potentially reduce the nutritional composition in beans and improve some nutrients in tomato.