Nutritional evaluation of complementary food developed from Unmalted Millet, Malted Malt, Sweet Potato, Breadfruit, and Soybean flour blends

Abstract

Poor weaning practices are a major cause of malnutrition in infants between the ages of 6 and 24 months. This may be due to ignorance, poverty, or the expense of commercial weaning foods. Thus, the formulated complementary food is to pro vide a practical solution with the aim of bridging the gap. This study developed and evaluated the nutritional quality of complementary food made from unmalted millet and malted millet flour, breadfruit flour, soybean flour, and sweet potato flour blends in the ratios of (0:50:20:20:10); (0:40:30:20:10); (0:30:40:20:10); (0:20:50:20:10); (100:0:0:0:0), respectively. They were evaluated for proximate composition and sensory qualities using established methods. There are significant differences (p < 0.05) among the formulated samples in all the measured parameters. The result of the analysis on proxi mate composition shows moisture content (10.65-13.57%), Protein (5.68-7.37%), fats and oil (2.14-2.45%), fibre (0.54 0.82%), carbohydrate (77.34-77.93%), and energy (3.53-4.21%). Generally, significant differences (p < 0.05) were ob served in most of the sensory attributes evaluated. The sensory quality rating of the different complementary foods was higher than that produced from only millet flour, with the most acceptable sample being sample A (50% malted millet, 20% breadfruit, 20% soybean, and 10% sweet potato flour blends. The findings of this study are an indication that an ac ceptable, low-cost, and nutritionally dense complementary food that can serve as a better alternative to the traditional cere al-based weaning food can be developed from malted millet, breadfruit, soybean, and sweet potato flour blends.