ABSTRACT

Complementary foods are infants' food given to infant between 6- 24 months in order to complement breast milk and not to replace it. In developing countries such as Nigeria, complementary foods is usually low in energy, protein and micronutrients like iron, zinc and vitamin A, hence the need to improve the nutrient density of complementary food becomes a pressing need that can only be met through fortification of this food using food rich in those micronutrients and legumes. Prevalence of malnutrition in children in south eastern Nigeria is high due to poor complementary feeding practices as a result of low income. An attempt was made to formulate low cost, nutritive complementary foods using maize, soybeans, groundnut and dates. The study was carried out to examine the nutrient composition and sensory attributes of a complementary food made from maize, soybean, groundnut and dates. In this work maize, soybean, groundnut and dates blends were used to produce complementary food. The grains were purchased from the Ubani market in Umuahia. Maize and soybean were soaked for 48 and 24 hour respectively, soybean was boiled for 1 hour then dehulled and both were oven dried at specific temperature then milled into flour. Groundnut and dates were washed, cleaned and drained thoroughly. The groundnut seed was roasted to remove the hulls while the dates' seed was separated from the flesh and both were milled into flours. Three different blends were formulated in the ratio. About bOg of each grain were processed by roasting and blended into flour, using different proportions: MSGD400- (70% maize: 20% soybean: 5% groundnut: 5% dates), MSGD4I5- (65% maize: 25% soybean: 10% groundnut: 5% dates), MSGD4O5- (60% maize: 20% soybean: 15% groundnut: 5% dates) and C4 10- 100% cerelac (Maize) were used as control. The products were analysed from chemical composition, anti-nutritional factors and sensory attributes. Chemical analysis was done using standard analytical methods and a 9 point hedonic scale was used to judge the sensory parameters, Duncan multiple range test with significance accepted at p<0.05 result revealed that mean protein content of sample MSGD400- (70% maize: 20% soybean: 5% groundnut: 5% dates) that had (5.46%) was significantly higher p< 0.05 than the other samples. The results of the proximate compositions showed that the moisture content sample MSGD 415 has the highest moisture content (65.76%) and carbohydrate (19.41%) among them while sample MSGD 400 had the highest total solid content (24.56%), ash content (1.59%), fat (9.36%) crude fibre (0.86%) and energy value (175.24%); the result of mineral content showed that sample (MSGD 400 had the highest iron (2..9 1%) among them while sample MSGD 415 had the highest zinc (4.71%), calcium (28.4%), copper (6.93%) and magnesium (15.31%) among them. The result of vitamin showed that sample MSGD 415 had the highest carotene A (3.56%) and vitamin C (8.22%) in all the sample MSGD 400 had lowest value of flavonoid (0.12%) while sample MSGD 405 had the highest flavonoid (0.17%) and sample MSGD had the highest saponin (0.27%) compared to the others. The result of the sensory evaluation showed that the control sample C4 10 which is cerelac was most preferred for all the sensory attributes followed by sample MSGD 405 and MSGD 415. The sample MSGD 405 and 415 that cost 500 per each is cheaper than sample C410 that cost NI 800.The sensory evaluation result and price value showed that the formulations are comparable to the nutrient contents of the commercially sold control (cerelac) and more affordable to individual.