ఫుడ్ ప్రాసెసింగ్ & టెక్నాలజీ జర్నల్

నైరూప్య

Development and Nutritional Evaluation of Instant Complementary Food Formulated from Vitamin A, Iron and Zinc Rich Crops

Ruth Bekele, Legesse Shiferaw

The first 2 years of life are a critical period of rapid growth and brain development. During this period, nutrition and environmental factors play important roles in the growth and cognitive development of a child. In Ethiopia, poor feeding practices and shortfalls in food intake are the most important direct factors responsible for malnutrition and illness amongst children. The national prevalence for timely initiation of complementary feeding is 62.5%.

The most common forms of malnutrition are Protein-Energy Malnutrition (PEM), vitamin A deficiency, iodine deficiency disorders, and iron deficiency anaemia. Traditional infant foods made of cereals and legumes may be low in several nutrients including protein, vitamin A, zinc, and iron. Despite children’s high requirements for nutrients, their diets in developing countries are mostly comprised of cereals or starchy root crops which, when eaten exclusively, resulting in deficiencies of key nutrients such as iron, zinc, calcium, riboflavin, vitamin A, and vitamin C.

Therefore, in this study composite Complementary Flour (CF) was developed by incorporating carrot and pumpkin to enrich the CF with vitamin A.  Other than Cereals, Iron and Zn rich beans were also used to address Fe and Zn deficiencies. The analysis of proximate, minerals, beta-carotene, phytate, bioavailability, and sensory were studied for formulated five complementary flour treatments. Ranking to select the optimum CF formulation was made for all the treatments based on their protein content, energy value, Zn, and beta-carotene amount.  The ranking result showed CF₄=30% Wheat+20% Maize+25% Soybean+15% GLP-II+5% Pumpkin+5% Carrot was found to possess the most desirable nutritional value among the five formulated five complementary foods.