Quality Characterization of Complementary Food Produced from Orange Flesh Sweet Potato Supplemented with Cowpea and Groundnut Flour

Malnutrition prevalence remains alarming: about 821 million children in the world suffer from severe acute malnutrition, while 2 million children suffer from malnutrition in Nigeria. This study examined the ability of orange flesh sweet potato supplemented (OFSP) with cowpea and groundnut flour to serve as a complementary food. The complementary food was formulated from the flour of Orange flesh sweet potato, cowpea and groundnut to make different blends at different ratios of 50:35:15, 60:25:15, 70:15:15, 80:5:15 and 100% cowpea respectively. The five complementary foods produced were compared with a commercial complementary food brand (Nutrend). The functional properties, proximate composition, anti-nutritional factors, β-carotene and colour parameters of the complementary foods were evaluated. The results obtained showed that the proximate composition of the complementary foods ranged from 4.47 - 15.44% for protein, while the energy value ranged from 349.12 - 383.61 kcal/100 g. These values were slightly higher than the control (Nutrend) but, met the recommended minimum levels for complementary foods by World Health Organization (WHO). Sample AAA (50% OFSP, 35% cowpea and 15% groundnut) had the highest protein content (15.44%) which met 92% of the recommended dietary allowance (16.70%) for infants. Thus, sample AAA could be used with breast milk to help in alleviating protein-energy malnutrition and increase bioavailability of other important micronutrients required by infants. Practical application The complementary food produced and observed in this work is made from cheap and locally available raw materials; orange flesh sweet potato, cowpea and groundnut which are readily available. Groundnut has much fat while cowpea is rich in protein and B-vitamins which can be used in alleviating protein energy malnutrition in children and also help to meet their daily energy requirement. The technology of processing can easily be adopted at industrial and household level.