Utilization of chayote fruit and effect of processing on its nutrient content: a case study of Maziba Sub County, Kabale district

Abstract

Due to current increased use of chayote fruit, various cooking and processing methods and recipes have been developed and used and these independently affect the nutrient content of the fruit. Cooking processes promote minor changes like in the polysaccharide composition of chayote pulp, but strongly affect the photochemical composition(Castro-Alves & do Nascimento, 2016; Díaz-de-Cerio et al., 2019; Shiga et al., 2015) According to Loizzo et al. (2016), a significant loss of flavonoid content was observed with the following trend: fresh > steamed (95°Cunder atmospheric pressure for 30minutes) > blanched (100°C, 30minutes) > baked (dry heat at 190°C for 90minutes) > micro waved (10minutes at 900Mhz) > roasted (180°C for 10minutes). Also, roasting and steaming reduced one half of the total phenol content. Therefore, this gives a clue that with various cooking processes, vitamin, protein, fiber and other nutrients content of the chayote fruit may be greatly affected.