The acceptability of ‘Star Yellow,’ a Cameroonian functional food that could curb the spread of the COVID-19 via feces
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31989/ffhd.v10i8.715Abstract
Background: COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Despite the World Health Organization’s publication of different measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, new cases are reported daily. These protective control measures put in place assumed that transmission of COVID-19 was mediated essentially through droplets released from the nasal and respiratory secretions of infected persons. Recent scientific evidence however puts forward the occurrence and shedding of active COVID-19 virus in stools of infected persons. The present study tested the acceptability of an improved version of the ‘Yellow soup’ which contains ingredients/spices with known antibacterial/antiviral properties.
Methods: Star Yellow was made by using a palm oil/limestone base to which was added spices /ingredients rich in zinc and known for their antiviral/antibacterial activity. Sensory evaluation of the resulting mixture was done by a taste panel comprising habitual eaters of ‘Yellow soup’ using a hedonic scale of 1 to 5.
Results and Conclusion: Sensory assessment of Star Yellow showed a mean acceptability of 77.4% compared to 54.8% obtained for the commercial Yellow Soup served in restaurants. This indicates the acceptable taste of Star Yellow and opens up potential new avenues of research in the control of SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission via feces.
Keywords: Yellow soup, COVID-19, feces, gastrointestinal tract, zinc, RNA replication.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Julius Oben, Jude Bigoga, Guy Takuissu, Rose Leke
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain the copyright of their articles and grant the Functional Food Center (FFC) and its journals the right of first publication under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, including commercial use, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited. Authors may post and share their published work freely, provided that the original publication in this journal is acknowledged.
By submitting to this journal, authors confirm that their manuscripts are original, not under consideration elsewhere, and that they hold the necessary rights to grant this license. The Functional Food Center encourages open scientific exchange and allows derivative and extended works, provided attribution to the original publication is maintained.