Development and quality evaluation of low‐cost, high‐protein weaning food types

Abstract

PurposeThe objective of this study is to develop two nutrient‐dense and acceptable weaning foods – Prowena and Propalm – using high‐protein food ingredients: crayfish (Macrobachium spp), soybeans (Glycine max) and groundnut (Arachis hypogea) to enrich the sole starch based weaning food locally known as “ogi”.Design/methodology/approachThe weaning food mixture was formulated by mixing yellow maize ogi flour, soyflour, groundnut meal and crayfish flour for Prowena (PROW) while palm oil was added to the mixture for Propalm (PROP). PROW and PROP were compared with the commercial weaning food Nutrend (NUTR) and the traditional weaning food, yellow maize gruel, or ogi (YOG), in terms of energy, nutrients and sensory scores.FindingsChemical analysis showed that PROW contained 2.71 per cent moisture, 22.95 per cent protein, 5.86 per cent fat, 3.75 per cent fibre, 62.39 per cent carbohydrate, 4.31 per cent ash and 3.75 kcal of energy, while PROP had 2.78 per cent moisture, 21.99 per cent protein, 8.86 per cent fat, 3.89 per cent fibre, 59.29 per cent carbohydrate, 4.77 per cent per cent ash and 3.78 kcal of energy. The sensory evaluation showed that both PROW and PROP were equally acceptable as NUTR and more acceptable than YOG in terms of taste, flavour and texture (p<0.05). However, there was no significance difference (p>0.05) in acceptability of PROW, PROP, NUTR and YOG in terms of colour.Originality/valueThe paper shows that the two weaning foods would be suitable for the commercial market to increase the protein intake and to combat protein energy malnutrition (PEM) amongst infants.