ABSTRACT
Over the years, traditional roasting systems in which foods are roasted manually over an open fire utilizing biomass fuels, such as wood, twigs, dung, or coal, have been utilized for roasting agricultural produce. Hence, in this study, an electric- powered food roasting machine that utilizes electrical energy was developed using locally available materials with the aim of investigating the performance of the constructed oven using standard test procedures. The performance of the constructed baking system was assessed by investigating the moisture content and roasting rate. Two different samples were utilized during the testing process (maize and chicken) and roasting samples were carried out for 2100 seconds. The experimental results revealed that the roasting rate (1.947 g/min) was the highest at 86.9 °C during the roasting of chicken while the roasting rate (0.6958 g/min) 236was the highest at 99 °C during the roasting of maize. In addition, moisture contents were the lowest (0.431%) and the highest (2.29%) at 218.3 °C and 86.9 °C, respectively, during the roasting of chicken while moisture contents were the lowest (0.808%) and the highest (4.761%) at 218.3 °C and 99 °C, respectively, during roasting of maize. Also, the total cost of developing the electric-powered roasting machine is lower compared to the cost of buying a new electric-powered roasting machine in the market. Hence, it can be concluded that the developed roasting machine is cost-effective and capable of enhancing an efficient and effective roasting process. However, the roasting time depends on the weight of the test samples.
