Evaluation of Nutrient Composition of Complementary Foods Made From Locally Available Cereals and Legumes

Abstract

Background: Complementary foods play a very important role in the life of infants and young children, as they serve as a complement to  breast milk after the first 6 months of exclusive breast feeding to meet nutritional requirement of infants and achieve optimal growth.
Objective: The study was carried out to evaluate the nutritional content of four complementary foods produced from locally available cereals and legumes.
Methods: Recipe of four complementary foods was formulated and prepared in the Laboratory, the samples were produced from blends  of maize, soybean, sorghum, wheat, rice and groundnut at different ratios. The proximate, mineral and anti-nutritional properties of  these complementary foods blend were determined using standard procedures. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to analyze  the data, Duncan's multiple range test used to separate the means at P<0.05.
Results: The result obtained shows Moisture content of 6.09±0.08 – 2.40±0.06%, Protein of 24.97±0.18 – 12.27±0.08%, Fat content of  15.08±–8.39±0.13%, Carbohydrate content of 52.28±0.23 - 69.43±0.18. Tannin content of 98.46±0.22 –58.32±0.51 mg/100g, Phytate  5.79±0.03 - 3.56±0.30 mg/100g, and Trypsin Inhibitor 59.81±0.32 –24.32±0.53 mg/100g. The four complementary foods show no significant
difference (p>0.05) in the nutrients except in Trypsin Inhibitors that is significantly different (p<0.05). The samples contain Calcium  content of 44.89±0.52–11.83±1.19 mg/100g, Magnesium content of 310.59±0.05–168.33±0.64 mg/100g, and Potassium of 622.03±0.22–295.82±0.77 mg/100g.
Conclusion: The four complementary foods can meet the macro and micro nutritional needs of young infants.