PHYSICO-CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CO-FERMENTATION PRODUCT OF SOYMILK PROCESSING BY-PRODUCT (OKARA) AND PALM KERNEL CAKE FOR POULTRY FEED IMPROVEMENT

Abstract

The production of soymilk generates large quantities of a byproduct 'okara' which are often improperly disposed in a manner that constitutes an environmental hazard. This experiment was designed to evaluate the feasibility of producing a nutritionally enhanced poultry feedstuff by co- fermenting a mixture of okara and palm kernel cake. About 300 g of okara was mixed with 100 g of PKC and then subjected to solid state fermentation for 0, 3, 6 and 9 days and thereafter sundried. This was replicated four times for each period of fermentation. The products were analyzed for physicochemical characteristics such as bulk density (BD), specific gravity (SG), water holding capacity (WHC) and particle size distribution (PSD), pH, trypsin inhibitor (TI) level and proximate composition (PC). The results showed that the physical characteristics and proximate composition of the product did not vary with period of fermentation, however the trypsin inhibitor levels decreased significantly (P<0.001) from 206.11 mg/kg on day 0 of fermentation to 36.38 mg/kg after 6 days of fermentation.