ABSTRACT

 The prevalence of malnutrition in children in developing and under developed countries can be attributed to the poor complementary feeding practices in these countries, including Nigeria. In this experimental study an attempt was made to formulate a lowcost, nutritive complementary food from locally available foodstuffs such as soybean (SB), sorghum (SG), millet (M) and carrot (C). The proximate composition, selected vitamins and minerals, anti-nutrient composition and sensory properties of the complementary food were evaluated using standard procedures. The different flours were combined in ratios (SB:M:SG:C) (500) 25:40:25:10, (501) 25:50:20:10, (502) 25:35:30:10, respectively). Pap made from 100% maize was used as the control. Porridges were prepared from the composite blends and a 20 panelist were used for the organoleptic evaluation. The proximate composition showed that the moisture content of the complementary food samples ranged from (sample 500) 71.25%- 72.42% (control), the crude protein of the samples ranged from (control) 5.11%-il .44% (sample 500), the crude fiber ranged from (control) 0.4 1%- 2.42% (sample 500), fat content ranged from (control) 2.09%- 7.45% (sample 500), ash content ranged from (control)i.29%- 2.92% (sample 500), carbohydrate content ranged from (sample 500) 4.53%- 18.69% (control) while the energy value ranged from (control) 1 13.95Kcal-130.89Kcal (sample 500). The minerals evaluated included Calcium - (control)12.86mg/l0Og- 34.82mg/bOg (sample 500), sodium (control)19.81mg/100g - 40.l5mg/lOOg (sample 500) , magnesium- (control)1.9lmg/l0Og - 6.81mg/bOg (sample 500), phosphorus: (control) 33.21mg/bOg - 108.23mg/bOg (sample 500), potassium- (control) 4.62mg/lOOg - 43.36mg/bOg (sample 500), iron - (control) 1.05mg/lOOg - 1.8lmg/lOOg (sample 500), zinc - (control) 0.72mg/lOOg - 2.l6mg/lOOg (sample 500). The complementary food had significant amounts of vitamin A (182.33 pig- 318.63 tg), Bi (0.34mg/bOg -0.81mg/i O0g). B2( 0.41mg/lOOg -0.52mg/bOg), B2 (0.41mg/bOg -0.53mg/bOg), B3 (2.01 mg/bOg - 2.86 mg/bOg), vitamin C (7.38 mg/bOg - 12.42 mg/bOg). The complementary food also significant amounts of tannin (sample 502) 2.07 mg/bOg - 3.87 mg/100g (control) which was relatively high with reference to the safe level of (1.9- 2.4 mg/i oog), flavonoid ( sample 502)1.18 mg - 2.42 mg/i 00g (control),while it had low saponin ( control) 0.22 mg/bOg - 0.31 mg/100g (sample 500), alkaloid ( sample 502) 0.27 mg/100g - 0.40 mg/100g (control) and phytate ( sample 502) 0.50 mg/100g - 1.03 mg/100g (sample 500) .Organoleptically, all the samples were similarly accepted with the control , although sample 501 was more accepted. In conclusion, enriching complementary food with soybean, sorghum, millet and carrot improves the nutritional value and also reduces the dependence on complementary foods made from single blend (such as pap made from maize, millet or sorghum).