NUTRITIVE AND SENSORY QUALITIES OF INDIGENOUS SPICES ON MEAT FOR TOURIST ACCEPTABILITY IN SELECTED ECOTOURIST DESTINATIONS

Abstract

The study focused on determining the nutritive and sensory qualities of some indigenous spices on meat for tourists’ acceptability in Old Oyo National park and Ikogosi Warm, Spring and Resort. A total of Three hundred and fifty (350) questionnaires were administered and Three hundred twenty four (324) were retrieved. The respondents were tourists within Nigeria and from other parts of the world. The study adopted a survey and experimental procedure. A pre-test was carried out on organoleptic parameters at Obudu Mountain Resorts, Cross River State. Raw spices, applied on raw meat were analysed in Animal Production and Health Department APH, Laboratory of Federal University of Technology, Akure. The spices were treated before its application. Grasscutter (Thryonomys swinerianus), African giant land snail (Achachatina marginata) and fish (A mola) were the meat samples used, ginger (Zingiber offinale), garlic (Allium sativum). Bark (Tetrapleura teraptera), Calabash nutmeg (monodoro myristica) and Scent Leaf (Ocimum basilicum), were the local spices used. Each of the meat samples was also prepared with each of the spices for tourists panelists to assess. However, each meat sample was also prepared without spices for assessment by the tourists to serve as a control sample. Primary data were collected from the tourists through the use of structured questionnaire. A 7-point hedonic scale was used to measure the acceptability of the meat prepared with local spices and other attributes such as colour, taste, texture and flavour. Data were presented descriptively and inferentially. The response of acceptability for application of ginger (Zingiber officinale), garlic (Allium sativum), Bark (Tetrapleura tetraptera), calabash nutmeg (Monodoro myristica) and scent leaf (Ocimum gratissimum) on Grasscutter, Snail and Fish wass high. This shows that tourists’ acceptability of all spiced meat was high and can attract tourists. In addition, tourists’ perception on the use and consumption of local spices on meat in Old Oyo National Park and Ikogosi Warm Spring and Resorts shows that most of the Tourist strongly agreed with the following opinions: that they often encounter meat prepared with local/natural spices in tourists’ destinations in Nigeria; frequently consume locally/naturally spiced meat; use some local/natural spices to prepare meat at home; often purchase meat spiced with local/natural spices; natural/local spices are better than processed spices, that natural/local spices have medicinal values, prefer natural/local spices because it is cheap, that natural/local spices are safer than processed spiced, that they prefer to eat at local restaurants where they are sure they use less of processed spices. However, they also observed that they have some fear for locally spiced meat. The test of significance between overall acceptability of spiced Grasscutter meat shows that there is a significant difference between overall acceptability of the spiced Grasscutter meat at (P<0.1) level [F (5, 1909) = 280.95, p = 0.000]. The test of significance between overall acceptability of spiced Snail meat shows that there is significant difference between overall acceptability of the spiced Snail meat at P<0.1 level [F (5, 1903) = 255.5, p = 0.000]. The test of significance between overall acceptability of spiced Fish shows that there is significant difference between overall acceptability of the spiced Fish at (P<0.1) level [F (5, 1912) = 246.09, p = 0.000]. The study thus recommends that more awareness should be created on the importance of indigenous spices, it should be realized that indigenous spices can be used as source of income generation to government and further research can be carried out on the best preservative methods for indigenous spices. Further studies are also recommended on the anti-nutritive contents of the spices.