INTRODUCTION
Groundnut is one of the leguminous crops grown worldwide. It contains about 25-30% protein, and 40-48% oil of high quality. Italso contains niacin, thiamine and other Vitamin-B componentsplus 11 of the 13 essential minerals like calcium (Maula, 1985).
In the Philippines, about 92.0% of its total groundnut production is consumed as food, 0.5% is used as seeds and 7.5% for nonÂfood uses. Products prepared from groundnut are flour, protein
Isolate, cheese, and paste for shortening and defatted meal forsnack foods. The seed coat is a source of commercial tannin and thiamine. According to a survey conducted by (Galvez et al., 2002), groundnut paste was the most preferred over the other groundnut products like fried, roasted or boiled and produced and available in all the regions of the Philippines, the most common of which are the flowing types. However the oil separates during storage, and the product needs to be remixed for better eating quality. This separation is a problem due to higher tendency of the product to become rancid.The stabilizer keeps the oil from separating from the groundnut paste and improves texture, increases shelf life, and keeps the groundnut paste fresh which most consumers prefer (Malupangue, 2005).
Groundnut paste (Okwa-Ose) is a semi-perishable product that is subject to a number of microbial, chemical and physical deteriorative changes, which affect the final quality of the finished product. The shelf life is greatly dependent on the quality of groundnut used and the conditions of the groundnut used for making the groundnut paste. Deterioration of groundnut paste arises from putrefaction of protein fraction caused by bacterial metabolism; darkening, which results from an interaction between sugar and protein in the product and; oxidative rancidity that develops in the unsaturated portion of oil when it is exposed to air (Woodroof, 1983).