Abstract:
Malnutrition among children is still prevalent in most part of Ghana. This is very common in the rural regions of the country where cereal flour is the main source of complementary food for infants. In light of that, legumes such as cowpeas and peanuts are used to enrich the quality of complementary foods to improve child nutrition. Utilization of legumes in complementary feeding come with shortfalls such as the presence of nutritional inhibitors. In this regard, different processing techniques have been employed to ensure nutrient bioavailability and product acceptability during complementary food development. Prominent among the processing techniques are fermentation, sprouting and roasting. The goal of this work was to investigate the effects of processing methods on the functional and nutritional quality of a sesame/peanut based complementary food. A least cost formulation of complementary food with adequate nutritional profile was obtained using rice, cowpeas, and either sesame or peanuts, by the application of linear programming methodology The solution for the linear programming was to achieve a diet of minimum cost and optimum macronutrient content (protein, fat, carbohydrate and energy) in line with the WHO recommendation for complementary foods for infants between ages 6 to 24 months. Based on the solution to the linear program constraints, one formulation was obtained for products made from peanuts and that made from sesame. The design of the study after obtaining the formulations from the linear program, entailed the following factors: fermentation (fermented and non-fermented rice), sprouting (sprouted and non-sprouted cowpeas), roasting of the peanuts and sesame. The formulations were drum dried to obtain a product that could be milled into flour and easily reconstituted with water into a porridge to feed infants. Physiochemical properties, nutritional profile, in-vitro protein digestibility, mineral bioavailability and phytate levels of all the formulations and drum dried products were evaluated. Microbiological safety evaluation consisted of coliforms, yeast and moulds, E. coli and aflatoxin levels. Particle size distributions enhancing the nutritive value of complementary foods and acceptable alternative uses for sesame seeds and peanuts for infant nutrition
