NUTRITIONAL VALUE AND SENSORY DESCRIPTION OF "ATADJON BASSAMOIS", A TRADITIONAL INFANTILE PORRIDGE BASED ON TIGERNUT (CYPERUS ESCULENTUS, L.)

Child malnutrition is still a public health problem in Côte d'Ivoire, mainly due to poor feeding practice linked to the low nutritional value of the staple foods used for child nutrition. However, the introduction of tigernut, proteins and lipids rich tuber, in the dietary habits of these children could constitute an interesting nutritional alternative to solve this problem. The objective of this work was to valorize the tigernut-based porridges for their use as complementary food in the diet of weaning children. To this end, physicochemical and organoleptic characteristics of four formulations AB1, AB4, RB2 and SB3 were studied. The atadjon formulations, especially AB1, presented the highest density in energy (95.70 Kcal/100g), protein (5.37 %), lipids (3.8 %) and the lowest contents in anti-nutrients with 2.17% in fiber, 36.6% in oxalates, 65.54% in tannin and 0% in phytates, contrary to the rice (RB2) and tigernut (SB3) control porridges. In addition, the atadjon formulations AB4 and AB1 were preferred to the control because of their sweet taste, tigernut flavor, brown color and flowability according to PCA analysis. Thus, this study indicates that these traditionally prepared porridges could be suitable for children receiving an average level of breastfeeding and three meals per day.