Development, Evaluation and Safety Aspect of Enriched Weaning Food from Cereal, Legume and Vegetable

Abstract

This study examined the development, evaluation and safety aspect of enriched weaning food from cereal, legume and vegetable. Maize was fermented, soybean was defatted and carrot was sliced, and all were processed to flour. The flours were formulated to blends. Laboratory analysis were done such as proximate, minerals, haematology and lipid studies of rat fed both formulated and commercial diets as well as the growth and feed intake of the rats. The data obtained were analyzed. The results showed that the moisture content observed was low ranging from 5.07% -12.91%. The lowest moisture (5.07%) was defatted soybean flour; this was followed by fermented maize flour (9.71%) while the highest moisture (12.91%) was seen in carrot powder. Carrot had the highest Ca (5850.0ppm), followed by defatted soybean (4700ppm), the least was maize (2900ppm). The highest count for white blood cell (WBC) was observed in rat fed rat pellet ie diet G (11.8x109). The high density lipoprotein (HDL) of rats fed different diets ranged from 31 to79mg/dl with group F (31.0 mg/dl) and C (79 mg/dl) which had the lowest and highest HDL respectively. At day 4, the highest (62.20g) feed intake was observed for rats that fed on diet C, next B (60.70 g), diet D (54.20 g), diet G (53.20 g), diet E (45.10 g), diet F (43.80 g). The least feed intake was diet A (39.6 g) in that decreasing order. This study has showed that diet C was outstanding among the diets and should be used to improve the body weight of infant, increased the HDL, reduced LDL, improves haematological parameters and improves nutritional qualities.